SCRIPTURE: Romans 8:12-14 MSG So don’t you see that we don’t owe this old do-it-yourself life one red cent. There’s nothing in it for us, nothing at all. The best thing to do is give it a decent burial and get on with your new life. God’s Spirit beckons. There are things to do and places to go!
THOUGHT: The do-it-yourself life. Ah, what a notion. It’s a little different than a DIY laundry room. You eliminate the need for others, and often the need for God. You double and redouble efforts to keep yourself safe from pain and failure, to find life without needing God’s plans, and without an acknowledgement that it could lead to a bitter end. From the prideful, I’ve got this, God, to the disillusioned, I’ve got this because God failed me, to the jaded, I’ve got this because there is no God, the roads are broad and the possibilities endless.
These are on-ramps to the do-it-yourself life, yet Paul says there’s nothing in that life for us. Not a very good trade off, but I’ve fallen for it, and I’ve known others who’ve taken the same route. Then one observer of my life asked, “so where have all your efforts at doing-it-yourself gotten you?” It was the beginning of a big ah-ha, an epiphany. I’d worked so long and hard, longer and harder than anyone around me it seemed, 80-hour weeks, sacrificing for others’ happiness and comfort, leaving no stone unturned, and it had, literally, gotten me nothing (unless you count grief and brokenness).
I did give that life a burial, but I’m not sure it was decent. I wanted new life, and was willing to listen and learn to trust the Source of Life for it. God’s Spirit did beckon, and although the road has not been easy, it has been an adventure. My heart is safe, beloved by the God I love, and my life is held in his hands.
PRAYER: God, thank you for waiting for me at the end of my DIY life. You came running to meet me with a robe and ring the day I turned away from the search for life without you, and it’s been an adventure ever since. Hard, but good. Remind me, today and always, that we have places to go and things to do together.
Amy released a full-length book in early 2021, Walking When You’d Rather Fly: Meditations on Faith After the Fall. Maybe you’d like to check it out here.
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