The ‘?’ isn’t a mistake. And if you answer… ‘of course I’m here’ – where is your ‘here’? Do you truly know? Have you checked to see if you are on your path to becoming all you are or have you decided to take a ‘momentary break’? Actually, what IS a momentary break? Do you define it as not as involved, or not being involved? And how is that working for you?
“Then Jesus said to His disciples, ‘If anyone wishes to follow Me [as My disciple], he must deny himself [set aside selfish interests], and take up his cross [expressing a willingness to endure whatever may come] and follow Me [believing in Me, conforming to My example in living and, if need be, suffering or perhaps dying because of faith in Me]. For whoever wishes to save his life [in this world] will [eventually] lose it [through death], but whoever loses his life [in this world] for My sake will find it [that is, life with Me for all eternity]. For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world [wealth, fame, success], but forfeits his soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul?”
[Matthew 5: 24-26. AMP]
The Message Bible says: “What kind of deal is it to get everything you want but lose yourself? What could you ever trade your soul for?” [v. 26]
Did you really think that when you accepted Jesus as your Lord that all of the ugliness would go away and you could lead a peaceful life? We do live in a fallen world, you know. You aren’t like the people living at the time of Jesus and expecting a savior who would rid them of the occupying and oppressors (in their case, the Romans)? When you accepted Jesus you signed up for His army! Before you begin whining, look at His army. We are given the WHOLE armor of God (Ephesians 6) and we aren’t given ineffective and old weapons – ours are mighty (2 Corinthians 10:4). We are equipped… We are enabled… We are empowered! And I don’t see anywhere that we are to take a momentary break – except in Prayer.
When you look at Jesus’ life, you see that He often goes away to be with the Father. Goodness, if He had to, how much more do we need to (not really a question). If we really need a momentary break (and yes, I do believe this is critical and scriptural) then the most effective break would be in prayer – to be restored. to be renewed. And if it is prayer that is our answer, and then relationship becomes our context. Which brings up – what kind of relationship are you building with your Triune God?
Life is stressful. It never was designed to be. Look at Genesis again – God walked with Adam and Eve in the cool of the morning. He gave them dominion over His creation. In other words – Life was Good. But they threw it away (and don’t think you would have been wiser or done differently) – we all have that seed. And it really isn’t the point.
What does our ‘Here’ look like? How do we partner with the Lord to accomplish His goals, to touch lives for Him, to be His hands and feet and voice in our world? HE chose to involve us, to give us the joy of participating. Isn’t that far greater than a momentary moan? Besides, we have the answer to our moan. Turn to Him and make certain that you have invited Him into your Here.
