These days, with all the busy-ness, I feel like I don’t know where I’ve left my mind. Wedding planning here, youth group event there, sermon prep here, class project there. Trying to keep the yard from imploding, taking care of a dog that seems to start smelling an hour after I wash him, making sure I keep up with relationships, I feel a little crazy.
My mind is always busy thinking about something, and there’s no way I can carry on. How am I supposed to get through this, God? I want to give it all to you, but when I’m so drained, how can I actually find strength and comfort in you? It seems so foreign…
But today, I was compelled to come back to one of my favorites, a verse I’ve mentioned several times here in this blog.
Col 3:1-4, “If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.”
And there it is. God’s Word speaks yet again, and pierces to the very core.
If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. I HAVE been raised with Christ, and so I must seek the things above. What about all the things that I’m doing points me back to a kingdom-centered mentality? Am I living for the here and now? Am I just squeaking by? And where in the world are you Jesus? Oh yeah! You’re up there, where I should be seeking!
Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. Not only must I seek, but I must set my mind there. I’ve dropped it in so many places down here. No wonder sometimes I feel so aimless.
For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. I’m a new creation in Christ! So in some weird way, as the Spirit resides in me that connects me to Christ, the new creation that I am is with God. I live in the eternity now.
When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.” And so as I look to Christ, as I seek him and set my mind on the things above, I await his return, and my fullness, the genuine identity of who I am will be found there as well.
I think that I can sermon prep on my own. I think I can love these youth students on my own. I think I can plan, and do yardwork, and keep everything nice and tidy in my every expanding to-do list. But I can’t. I must seek the things above and set my mind on the things of the heavenly kingdom. Because all the things here, they will cease. All the things I’m striving for, eventually they will pass away, and only what is found in Christ will remain. All else will be consumed by the great and consuming fire that is our God.
I can die today. Christ can return in the next moment. And what good is it if I’ve been striving without Him in mind?
Thanks for the perspective again, God. Your faithfulness is everlasting.
