True or false...
I lie awake at night processing my day and most of what keeps me awake is naming my blog posts.
True.
Ha! Isn't that hilarious? Well, probably not because you aren't inside my head...but I guess as I am admitting this to you then I'm disclosing that I am actually kept up at night trying to come up with clever enough titles to make you read my blog.
I suppose my "writing just for me" excuse just flew out the door. Ahhhh, we are ALL filled with vanity, are we not? I guess it just pops up in the most peculiar of places for each one of us.
I have friends who will clean like a bat outta ... well, you know... to prepare for guests coming over. Now, I'm all for putting the 324 toys laying on the floor in their respective spot but if you come to MY house, do NOT look at the floors too closely nor will I suggest taking off your socks. Because while my floors needed a sweep before you came over... they most certainly will after you and your four children leave.
Indeed.
We all have our vanity. Where's yours lurking?
Here's why I suggest we take a moment to find them. Not because I want you to ditch them (although may I highly recommend you take some time to reflect on your vanities or obsessions with perfection and ask yourself "how is this important to becoming the person God wants me to be?"
Oh.... I know I just got a few back browsers "taps of the mouse" on that one. Relax... I'm not going heavy on you...
today. :)
Take a moment to find out where are imperfections are. What do we unnecessarily obsess or worry about?
"Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own." Matthew 6:34 NIV
Amen to that!
Where is your hidden vanity? Is it your appearance? Is it "trying to impress?" Is it false humility?
Now, I promised I wouldn't harp on it but I will ask you to do this. Flip the coin. Yeah... its like taking your smart phone camera and swapping it from taking a picture of yourself and flip it around to look at the person in front of you. What do you see?
Do you see the imperfections? The faults? The "dust bunnies in the corner he/she didn't sweep before they came over?" Or, do you see a work-in-progress?
I challenge your inner heart that what we probably see first is a flurry of judgments flying through our rain at an amazing speed:
-What is she wearing?
-Can you believe his suit?
-He's short. She's really tall.
-Can you believe she's talking to her kids that way?
-He was sooooo rude.
-She's so obnoxious.
-He's so full of himself.
-They were awkward.
- At least I'm skinnier than her.
-At least I make more than him.
Hey. It's okay. It's normal. Remember, we are sinners...our hearts fell away from God (darn that Eve!) and so we're left with free will...which was God's original gift when he formed us but we're also left with a huge sense of unsatisfaction that leaves us yearning...yearning...yearning.
And it's when we're yearning for something else that we begin to stack rank the world around us.
The problem is we are doing in within a snapshot of time.
If you came to my door at 4:45pm, you can see through to the family room and it resembles an ill-run daycare; toys, blankets and stuffed animals litter the room. If you come to my door at 9pm (which you should not, by the way) then you would see an orderly ensemble of "for the most part" matching furniture and decor... and no toys visible.
We are all transforming into our final masterpiece.... and to look at us once and make a conclusive judgment doesn't just sell us short of our potential...but it sells you short too.
If you look in the oven at something that is "half baked" it's a work in progress...and we all are, aren't we? How many opportunities for friendships, relationships, networking, etc. have we passed right by because we made a split-descision judgment about someone?
Guarantee if you waited on me at Nordstrom since I became a mom of 3 boys you looked at my oven while I was "half baked." Not because I was literally half baked (although I might have resembled symptoms!) but because the outburst to my children as they walked UP the DOWN escalator or whacked each other with shoe-department balloons isn't my 24-7 demeanor with my children. It was a moment of time...stacked between thousands of other minutes of my life in which I have demonstrated unbelievable back-breaking love, concern and patience with my children.
I AM... A WORK IN PROGRESS
YOU ARE.... A WORK IN PROGRESS
WE ARE ALL.....WORKS IN PROGRESS
Wanna change the world? Suspend the stack ranking... and look to gain from one another instead of turning off the oven light with judgement ruling our hearts.
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