Outside the Box

Who is forcing me to be so busy? Who is forcing you?

And are those forces really true, or just a hoax we're trying to live up to?

I'm not saying we shouldn't work hard at what matters, but I guess I'm just wondering where we came across the idea that we needed to live this hectic schedule to be successful?

What drives you to do the things you do? Is it money? Or family? Or friends?

Is it fear? Or anxiety? Or control?

Or is it the sweet Spirit of God inside you?

Who is pulling the strings of your life saying, "Do this!" and "Do that!"?

And why is the busiest schedule the one to idolize and imitate?

Who says you're more successful the busier you are?

And who says you're lazy to live intentionally slower so you can really take in what matters?

I think we are all in too big a hurry to run ourselves into the ground.

And I think I've done it a thousand times infinity.

And here's what I've found to be true for myself: the times I've gotten too busy and said yes to way too many things are the times I was letting fear of man control me rather than the Love of God.

Because when I'm too busy worrying about what everybody else will think of me, I try to please as many people as humanly possible all at the same time. And I try to be everybody's everything.

But when I'm living to love God and to, by extension, love myself the way He loves me, I am willing to let those expectations fall so that I can say yes to the deeper, abundant life that the Spirit is leading me towards.

And I realize this is all way too idealistic and "can't" be lived out in real life, where kids have school and homework and extracurriculars and we have jobs and homes and responsibilities. And my husband is a youth pastor so I definitely get the pressure to conform to the expectations of others on what your life should look like.

But, guys... is it really working for us?

Are you really satisfied with life as you know it?

Has saying yes to everybody and being everything everyone wants you to be really gotten you to the place of satisfaction and acceptance you were hoping it would?

My guess is no... because I've lived that lie almost my entire life and it's exhausting.

I guess the whole point of this random rambling post is just to maybe remind myself again that life can be lived outside the box. That I don't have to live like a robot saying yes to everyone's every command and I can actually live in the FREEDOM that Jesus died for me to have.

I can live free from obedience to money and fear and "the system" and my peers and my parents and even my own expectations about how my life "should" look, and I can follow Jesus into a life of abundant peace, provision, and destiny.

The question I want to ask myself is, "What is the ONE THING that, if I only got that one thing right, I will have been successful?"

Because life is too short to waste it on anything less than what I was made for.

It's time to live free.