I once heard that we as people tend to firmly believe something that I recently discovered is actually quite false: in the grand scheme of things our life will finally become significant when we achieve something significant.
Our mentality is often that when we start a revolution, when we form a company, when we become President, when we feed 5 million hungry children, THAT is when our life means something. While that is a motivational thought in one sense, as it drives us to accomplish these immense meaningful goals, how depressing is that same thought from a another very real perspective? This idea tells me that my life is not meaningful until I finally accomplish what the big picture plan is for my life may be. And what if I never accomplish that? What if I never get there? What if I fail? What if I do something different?
These past few months as I processed what my life looks like and what I want it to look like, my thoughts were swarmed with the fear I just described.
But has it ever occurred to us that our life is not significant because of one major thing we accomplish but rather because of our little, day-to-day, and every day moments. God’s providence and plan is huge and “big picture,” yes and forsure, but I think it’s also true to say, and more peaceful quite frankly, that God’s plan and providence also applies to the details of our lives. In my opening the door for an elderly woman, in my coworker thinking to buy my a Starbucks frappuccino, in a friend telling you, “you’re courageous, you’re bold, you’re inspiring”: IN THESE THINGS, God looks down upon our lives and He works. In these little actions and thoughts and gestures and words, in these things do our lives actually take meaning.
So maybe in my big plans to figure out the college I will be transferring to, the job I am trying to get, or the places I plan to go, I should actually focus way more on who I am and how I can impact life around me on this day that is called today.
photo by tonivalentiniphotography.com
great stuff!