Something that has become one of my favorite things to do in the morning [of course only on weekdays when I’m up early enough] is to pull open the blinds and watch the sunrise as I eat breakfast! For that short amount of time everything is still, hardly anyone is out and about, I can hear a couple of bird chirping, and I can see the skies change from pink to yellow to blue. It is such a beautiful sight that sometimes leaves me speechless in the awe of God’s creation. I don’t even think the best artist in the world could recreate some of the mornings I’ve seen. Seeing such a beautiful sunrise makes me want to just freeze time, to capture that moment so I can see it all day long. One morning was extremely beautiful so I pulled out my camera, snapped a shot, then reviewed it and not to my complete surprise the details my eyes were seeing were not captured by the lens of my camera. The picture was dull and lacked major color! I think sometimes I get distracted from things around me due to technology. When I’m taking a trip, walking into work, or waiting in line I forget to look around at God’s creation and instead stay on my phone texting, facebooking, or pintresting! So maybe that was why my picture didn’t come out as I was really seeing it. Maybe God was trying to tell me to stop trying to see Him and His creations through a lens, and instead open my eyes and experience the real deal for myself in real time!
It’s so easy to try to live a “Christian” life through other people [who we just assume have everything together] or through a devotional book [which we assume is just as true as the bible itself, just more fun to read]. We forget to pick up the real book and talk with the real person who is in total control of our life. It’s been my challenge this past week to refocus on my relationship with God, to make Him the first priority, and to take time to stop and thank Him for every little thing that keeps me going each day. And I can definitely speak from experience when I say…it works!!
Last week was known by many of our staff as “the week from hell”. Which meant it was going to be extremely early mornings, extremely late nights, and the work material we were going to be dealing with was some of the worst we will ever come into contact with throughout the year. So the Friday before, as I left work, and throughout the entire weekend, each time I thought about going to work on Monday I was nearly in tears. I was in a depressive funk and was dreading it more than anything in the world! I didn’t know how I was going to push through and make it to Friday; I literally didn’t think I would! But I kept telling myself “Bailey, don’t cry because when, or if you do, come out on the other side of this and you look back and see yourself crying you’re going to look like a fool! So just don’t do it.” I listened to myself and began to pray. Giving my job and all its duties over to God, just as we were told to do in church this past weekend, because I knew what was coming I couldn’t handle on my own. I woke up at 4:00am Monday to start my work day [still praying] I made it home surprisingly not tired [thanking God], and repeated this same schedule and feeling the rest of the week. By Friday the staff that was with me stopped and said “I’m really impressed, this is the best we have ever seen this week go!” I just began to smile, knowing that my prayers were answered, and I looked back to Sunday night knowing there wasn’t any tears then or now and I smiled because I knew I made it, it was finally Friday!!
That week was as much of a breeze as work will ever be, so why have I not given it over to God before now? I still can’t answer that question, because there is no excuse for it. But I can tell you now that it is continuing from here on out. Go ahead, you try it too! I would say you’ll be surprised how well it works, but it’s really not a surprise [we all knew God could do it] but it’s a wonderful relief!
“It’s what we trust in but don’t yet see that keeps us going.” 2 Corinthians 5:7
