All These Things

I think how high my car payment is and then I meet someone who walks to work. I complain because my faucet drips and then I meet someone with nowhere to live. I worry because I don’t make enough money and then I meet someone who is unemployed. I would like to be better looking until I meet someone who is horribly disfigured. I mourn because I don’t have a master’s degree and then I meet someone who dropped out of high school.

I am restless, often discontent, because I want to HAVE so much more or to BE so much more. It is my peace I sacrifice and anxieties I gain. When I rest peacefully—trusting—I find all is well. I take time to count my blessings and find I am rich, educated, and well cared for. I find in the midst of my lack incredible, incalculable worth in being the prince of a Mighty, Faithful, and Loving King.

This is the very reason we are told to seek first the Kingdom of God. Because while searching for it all else pales and upon reaching it no desires remain. All desires will be met; those we conceived and those we dared not dream. There will be no further longing for the things we now crave. No need for “all these things” to be added. And if they are added—we will use them and not be used by them. We will control them and not be controlled by them. We will give thanks to God even as we enjoy “all these things.”

All these things indeed have come and gone and we hardly noticed their passing.
They were the whispers we thought too faint to warrant our attention.
They were the rustle or soft scent amidst the hustle and bustle of our day.
They have gathered in corners or have been packed and put in storage.
They clutter garages and fill attics.
The things we expected to bring fulfillment now suffer rust.
They are accusing items of our discontent.
They call to us as though wounded by our neglect.
We craved them but they did not satisfy.
They are the silent dust-covered remains of “all these things”

—and they are ours

—for now.

Matt. 6:33, Phil. 4:12,

(First published Jan 2008)

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