BE-GRATITUDES: 30 Days of Positive Attitudes

November 1^st, 2021

Day One: Rested

Psalm 23:1-3, ‘God, my Shephard! I don’t need a thing. You have bedded me down in lush meadows, you find me quiet pools to drink from. True to Your word, You let me catch my breath and send me in the right direction.’ (MSG)

The chaos of the last year—well actually, the last several years—finally collapsed around me in a heap. Everything I had been erecting for so long suddenly crumpled in a heap of exhausted lethargy; the tower of all I strived for now like building blocks strewn across the floor of life. I tried pulling myself up by my bootstraps like we were raised to do, thinking I could hold it all together, but the more I exerted, the tired-er I got; the more disillusioned.

That’s when I saw You, Lord. I saw You in all the tiny fragments of broken pieces, splintered dreams, worldly pursuits. I realized I had possessed it all, all the world could offer, and really, I had nothing at all. Nothing but some frayed ends and tattered hopes that it could somehow remain magically successful. The constant striving to produce results acceptable and seen by man had completely eradicated my own honor and integrity and character. You saw my fatigue with it all, God, and my despair, at all the time wasted ‘sacrificing the permanent on the altar of the immediate’.

It didn’t happen at once. In fact, I didn’t get here overnight so it wouldn’t be just an overnight stay to get out of this sinkhole I found myself washed up in, stuck tight in. But what You did for me was translucent, a mirror, a reflection, so I could see for myself who I had become and what I was forfeiting, and then you provided me a safe place to peacefully rest and refuel, to begin again.

I am grateful, God, for Your patience with me on this Journey, and for the respite You prescribed and prepared for me. The Lord will certainly lead you away to a pasture of peace and allow you to lie down if you will let Him.

Describe a time when you found yourself exhausted by the requirements of life.

Matthew 16:26, ‘For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, and losses his own soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul?’