Put it in its Place

This semester I have had a constant whisper from that still small voice: "Put it in its place."

Worrying about school?  About work?  About money?  About illness?  About politics?  About time?

Put it in its place.

God did not create us to live anxious, worry filled lives.  He created us to live lives full in Him.  God didn't declare "You shall have no other gods before me" (Exodus 20:3) for His benefit, but for our benefit.

When you worry, are you elevating the subject of your anxiety to a place that it doesn't deserve to hold?  There is a place in our lives for worry, for work, for studying, for money, for political analysis.  There is a place for most of what we fill our lives with, but where it becomes harmful is when we make it more important than it is.  Put it in its place.

For me, this semester, it's one of my classes.  It's a business simulation that runs on a weekly schedule, where competition results come out on Sunday night at 9PM and then we spend the rest of the week analyzing what happened in the simulation and making decisions for the next week.  It is one of those things that could truly never be done.  No matter how much time I put in from week to week, there is always more analysis that I could be doing, more calculations that I could make.  When I get caught up in the simulation I can easily spend several hours doing nothing but staring at the computer screen and moving numbers around.  Do I get any fulfillment from this?  No.  Does it make me a better person?  No.  Does extensive analysis help me to learn the class objectives better?  No.  Could my team do better if I were to do nothing but look at these simulation results?  Maybe.

It's in these times when I am so caught up in this simulation or other classwork that God tells me to step back and put this class in its place.  I wasn't created for this class.  This class does have a purpose, but elevating it to a level outside of its rightful place in my life does nothing beneficial to my learning or to my character development.

For the first eight weeks of this class my team consistently was not seeing results that matched up with the amount of time and effort we were putting into the simulation.  I felt beaten down and exhausted by this class, and by the time week eight rolled around I was ready to quit, feeling pretty bad about myself and my abilities.  Together with my team and professor I put a final push into week eight, exerting more time and energy on this simulation than any week before, vowing that I would do nothing but the bare minimum from there on out if the week eight results weren't better.

Week Eight was a roaring success.  The results came out Sunday at 9PM, as per usual, and I was overjoyed.  A funny thing happened as the week went on, though.  After the initial excitement, this success didn't fulfill me, and much like our prior failures didn't define me, this success didn't either.  I laughed at God when I realized that even though I had been trying to listen to Him all semester and put this class in its place, I really had believed that everything in my life would align and go well once this class went well.  But that wasn't true, and even with this personal "win" I still had to put the class in its place.

The only thing that defines us is Christ's love for us, not anything that we can do or say in this life.  When facets of life begin to take over, don't let them.  Keep them where they belong, and keep your eye on the prize (or, rather, gift): eternal life with our Savior.  Worry as necessary, work as necessary, study as necessary, but don't let any of those things take over.  Put it in its place.

Breathe, Just Breathe

In, out.
In, out.

I know, I know. There are times when life can seem so overwhelming, and you feel so lost in the world. Believe me, I know. That sense that you're in a race, and just inches behind the next runner, but no matter how hard you push yourself, you can't catch up. There's always something new, always another thing on that to-do list.

I find that I get trapped in what needs to be done a lot. I can't focus on the task in front of me, because I'm too worried about what needs to be done next, and after that. Then there's the added pressure of prioritizing. Does the homework assignment due tomorrow come first? Or does the outline for the huge project due at the end of the week come first? Add friends, and drama, and family, and other school work into the equation, and you're buried head to toe in things that you need to get done before you can sleep for the night.

You feel like you're drowning. You kick your feet, and you push at the water with your arms, but you just can't stay above long enough to take a deep breath. Yeah, life can feel like that sometimes. When you're going, going, going all the time, never taking a moment to stop and smell the roses, you feel lost and exhausted.

So let me tell you, it's time to stop. Breath in, and breathe out. Smell the roses. It is spring-time, after all, the flowers are blooming rapidly. For just a couple of seconds, forget about the long list of things that need to be done, and breathe, just breathe. Take the time to appreciate the wonderful person you are, and the wonderful gifts that God has given you.