"The Lord has given this land to us,
I need to fuss
He knows what He's doing,
The Lord...."
You astute VeggieTales officiandos out there will know that the second line of this song is actually "NO need to fuss." But that is not how it is sung at our house. And it is sung at our house at least twenty thousand four hundred and one times a day, so this is heard at our hosue often. As I went to correct the girls for the umteenth time, I begain to see that they may actually be singing reality.
fuss: a: a state of agitation especially over a trivial matter b: objection, protest c: an often petty controversy or quarrel (according to www.Merriam-Webster.com)
How often do I see that God is at work in a situation and instead of rejoicing in what is happening, I choose to fuss? Maybe God chose to work differently than I would have chosen, so I get indignant. Maybe His time table did not comply with mine, so I get frustrated pace and fret. Maybe I am just disgruntled because someone else is getting the blessing instead of me. Maybe my excuse is that I am just being human, but that really translates into just being selfish.
There is often a sense that I need to "fuss"--fret and object--out of some misguided sense of injustice. Other times I "fuss" around--fidget, interfere, agitate--and get in the way. I say that God is working in my life but I don't act like He knows what He is doing. Worse yet, I act like He needs my "superior" skills to accomplish things. What a joke! What a sinful, prideful, selfish person I can be. And although my words may be saying "God is doing great things" if my actions are saying "I wish He would listen to me", what are people hearing? I think they more often hear the actions than the words. I want my actions to demonstrate my trust that "The Lord is giving (whatever we need) to us....He knows what He's doing."
Leave it to the children to teach us the lesson.
Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth. Psalm 46:10
The LORD is my strength and my shield; my heart trusts in him, and I am helped. My heart leaps for joy and I will give thanks to him in song. Psalm 28:7
An added note, after I wrote the above I went to the dictionary to get the actual definitions (as quoted above) instead of my in-my-feeble-brain definitions of my rough draft. In addition to the ones listed, there is this definition:
a: needless bustle or excitement b: a show of flattering attention
I realized that sometimes I "make a fuss" over what God is doing and in the end over-analyze it to the point of almost minimalizing it. The key words here seem to be "needless" and "flattering". It is important to recognize God's hand and to give Him the glory. But often I need to just let God be God and not try to explain Him. He doesn't need my flattery, He deserves my worship. That is the fine line that He is teaching me to define. Seems to me there is more heart-work that I need to do here. Maybe I'll write about it more in the future.
Blessings today! Thanks for coming by!
photograph courtesy of www.morguefile.com; artist=setapart
No comments:
Post a Comment