Day 23: Wake up and recover your life!
Scripture focus: So, friends, we can now—without hesitation—walk right up to God, into "the Holy Place." Jesus has cleared the way by the blood of his sacrifice, acting as our priest before God. The "curtain" into God's presence is his body. So let's do it—full of belief, confident that we're presentable inside and out. Let's keep a firm grip on the promises that keep us going. He always keeps his word. Let's see how inventive we can be in encouraging love and helping out, not avoiding worshiping together as some do but spurring each other on, especially as we see the big Day approaching. Hebrews 10:19-25 (The Message)
Daniel, Esther, you and I live within the confines of context. I was born at a time when women primarily stayed home and raised children – a high calling indeed. I grew up in the midst of a cultural earthquake. My daughter is experiencing life within the context of the expectation that she, like other young women her age, will have a career, a home, children, an excellent workout routine, eat organic, shrink the carbon footprint and in her spare time – save the world. Depending on a woman's birth date, the world's expectations have shifted dramatically in two generations. Time will reveal the effects of this contextual shift.
We are powerless over much of our life context. My grandmother used to tell me that if she were born in my day, she'd be a bank president – and I believed her. She never quite made peace with the Great Depression. Her first deposit into savings was lost when the bank crashed that very same week. My grandmother couldn't figure a way out and over her context – no higher education, born in a small agricultural community, expected to manage her home with grace (which she did beautifully). But in her heart, she dreamed of a world where a woman could hold a position that would figure out a way for no one to lose their hard earned money due to a bank failure.
My grandmother never made it to the top of the banking industry. Instead, she taught me how to sew and pull weeds and value patience by never ever letting me cut into her Four Day Coconut Cake before the allotted four days in the refrigerator to "set." But the most valuable lesson I learned from my grandmother was that I could and I should. She accepted the context of her life, but she never relinquished personal responsibility for the content of her life.
Her faith established the parameters of life experience – not the confines of her culture.
She taught me to believe that we are presentable inside and out because God said so. She said that we are to be full of belief, loaded with potential, and destined for fulfilled promises – again, because God said so. And if God said all these things, then each of us has a responsibility for the content of our life. Whatever the context, I am responsible for how I manage my opportunities – opportunities that come from God, not the world.
May we wake up each morning with the eager expectation that each day provides us with a chance to grow and learn and thrive.
Recommended reading: Romans 10 - 12
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