On Those Days When I Don't Want to Do Anything

 

          Today is one of those days filled with excitement: several young people and I will venture into St. Louis, Missouri and serve and learn about the city’s homeless. I’m thrilled and am so looking forward to all that will occur.

          However, today is also one of those days when I don’t want to do anything.  It is the ironic day when your heart is eager but your will lacks ambition. My body aches, my to-do list looms, and all I want to do is crawl back into bed. I whimper before my Lord words like,

          “Lord, please heal me our this is going to be a rotten weekend”

Or

“My family better thank their lucky stairs I’m pushing through this.”

Neither are true. Both, if dwelled upon, will make one very bad, destructive attitude.

And that’s when I remembered yesterday’s reading from church. Paul, when writing his letter to the Philippians wrote:

“But I have all, and abound: I am full, having received of Epaphroditus the things which we sent from you, an ordour of a sweet smell, a sacrifice acceptable, wellpleasing to God.”

Paul had previously said that the Philippian's gift was one of a kind; no other church, at that time, had been supporting him other than they. I wonder how large a gift it was? I suppose it could have been hefty but generosity is not determined by amount but by the heart.

No matter the size we know that their giving, their love in action, was a sweet smell and pleasing to the God of the universe. Imagine! God stoops down in love to gaze upon his creation and accepts with joy the meager workings we offer. How beautiful! How great God is!

What does this mean to me: That my actions can either be wellpleasing or unpleasant to my Father and Lord. I get to choose what I will offer today. Will I offer my body (consequently offering my time, energy, deeds, and attitudes) as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable before God?

 Some have the misconception that pleasing God is hard to do; I protest that notion. God, who knows our motives and inner thinking, is well pleased when we offer even small, unnoticed things in His name. He, the Creator of the heavens and earth and all within it, accepts a glass of water given in His name.

Today, I choose to look past myself and give even the small things to Him. Will my body still ache? Yes. Will my stubborn heart fight? Most definitely.

But at the end of the day I want to look back and know that I gave my best to God and rest in the knowledge that He accepted it. Not because He has to but because He wants to.

          Rejoicing in His great love!

              Frannie