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Shifting from Surviving to Enjoying

Do you ever feel like you are just trying to make it through your day? You get to the end of your day, and though you want to live a purposeful and thoughtful life, you find yourself seeking to simply escape it or check out of it instead. Then, before you know it, the day has ended; your head is finally laying on your pillow, and the haunting thought is left lingering in the air, “What am I doing with my life?”

I know…great start to a blog…very grim. However, I think many of us live each day in this narrative, either hoping tomorrow will finally breathe something new into our lives or settling into the thought that perhaps this is all that life has to offer.

When did life become something we are simply trying to get through? Where did the idea of enjoying our life go? Is that just an ideal for dreamers, or could it be something that is available and possible to us through Christ?

When did life become something we are simply trying to get through?

In these moments of thought, I always search to think about the last time I truly enjoyed my life, purely. And I am always drawn back to when I was a kid. One of my favorite things to do as a kid was to sit on my best friend’s large trampoline and watch the clouds pass by, laughing hysterically as we tried to identify the shapes they were in before they changed in form right before our eyes. I remember the smell of the grass, the feel of the breeze, the hot sun upon my face, and the sounds of the bugs buzzing around us like they just wanted to be close so they too could join in on the fun.

As I think back to this memory, I am left asking myself why I was able to have more of those moments back then than I seem to be able to have now. I think the easy answer is that we did not have any responsibilities, deadlines, or people depending on us back then. As kids, we had the freedom to be present and enjoy the life that presented itself before us. Yet, as an adult, I think that ability to be present and enjoy our life becomes harder to live within. Instead, we feel it is our job to ensure the stability of life—not enjoy it.

Somewhere along the road as we take on our responsibility to be a parent or an adult, we can forget that although we are called to mature beyond childhood, we are still called to have a childlike faith in our Father (God). A childlike faith that frees us from carrying the weight of life, to be present within it and enjoy it instead.

I think there is something profound in reclaiming our Father’s presence in our life and in all our circumstances.

However, I also believe that when we think of enjoying our life, it can be easy to forget to place our Father in the picture at all. As a result, we are removing the very Source of our life—the only One who can ensure our ability to be present and find enjoyment.

When we think of enjoying our life, it can be easy to forget to place our Father in the picture at all.

We think being able to finally enjoy our life is found in asserting our will, getting to live the way we desire, and doing the things we would like to do. However, the enjoyment we crave is found in the Father’s presence, in the rest of being in His hands.

So, my challenge/encouragement to us all today is to test this theory out together. For one week, give yourself a vacation from living life in survival mode and instead seek after drawing your Father God’s presence into each moment of your day, allowing it to draw you into a posture of rest. And as you rest it all in His hands, open your eyes and heart to enjoy instead.

Let’s together draw out the depths of the joy of our salvation by living it out. Let’s shift from simply surviving this life or the day, to enjoying it; for we have all our hearts desire in Christ Jesus now and forever.

“And they were bringing children to Him that He might touch them, and the disciples rebuked them. But when Jesus saw it, He was indignant and said to them, ‘Let the children come to Me; do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of God. Truly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it.’ And He took them in His arms and blessed them, laying His hands on them.”– Mark 10:13-16