Spring at the Birmingham Botanical Gardens

                 

                                                                                               

Life Gets in the Way of Life Sometimes

You know sometimes life just gets in the way of well, life.  You live each day doing the things you think you should do and before you know it the things you want to do are pushed to the edge.  Yes, sometimes life gets in the way.  Should this stop us, however?  Should we just throw our hands up and say it's of no use; of course not.  We take each day as it comes.  We let each person that we meet become small reminders that we are not alone; that others are experiencing the busyness of life, too.  We seek to find our purpose in the midst of living.

Finding our purpose can be challenging, though.  Henri Nouwen has written that we live like overstuffed suitcases "bursting at the seams".  Perhaps life getting in the way is exactly what we need.  We only have this one life in which to raise our children, attend to our jobs, go to school, attend worship.  Life is going to be what we make of it.  Sometimes we need to step back and take a "life inventory" to examine whether we are making a life or life is making us.

In the days following Easter I am reminded that life changed for the followers of Jesus Christ.  And here's the thing:  life didn't necessarily change for the better.  Granted, their conviction of who Jesus was (and is) changed exponentially and their commitment to spreading the gospel was unflappable.  However, their lives often met with derision and ridicule from others who were opposed to their message.  Most of the followers of Jesus in the early days of Christianity died as martyrs for the faith.  Yet, they could choose no other life because they lived and breathed the message of salvation that they had experienced first-hand through Christ.

I guess you could say that life got in the way but what a life. 

How's your life going?