Due season.
It has been a while since my last post here. There are multiple reasons for that, not the least of which is that my computer died several months back and finances were not such as to allow a repair or replacement for a while. Life has been busy, and I've found myself working every possible moment in order to try to make ends meet and yet still be there for my family (even when being there meant finding a way to travel 10,000 miles to get to my son's wedding!). Then there is the fact that of late, I really haven't felt like I had anything positive or encouraging to say. It's been that kind of a season in life...
Maybe you can relate.
I'm sure you would agree that life has its ups and downs. I would even venture to guess that for some of you, as for me, it feels like a lot more downs than ups. And just about the time it seems that things are starting to look up, right back down it goes. These are times of frustration. Times when it is easy to become discouraged. For me, it feels like much of the time I am simply "going through the motions."
Matthew West has a song called "The Motions" that is all about NOT just going through the motions. I absolutely love that song, and I agree with the sentiment. I don't WANT to just go through the motions in life, and particularly in my walk with the Lord. But reality of life is that sometimes that's all I CAN do. And in those times that all I can do is go through the motions, that is exactly what I need to do.
I'm doing a job right now for which I am very poorly suited, but it is a job and it has proven effective in helping pay the bills. I'm in a sales position! Crazy, huh?! I've always joked that I couldn't sell steak to a starving millionaire, and that is probably not far from the truth. But on days when I am scheduled for my sales job, I put on my "game face" and get out there and do my best to do that job. It's not like I'm trying to convince people to buy a bad product or anything. As a photographer for a company that produces church directories, I make my living not just by taking good pictures, but by getting people to purchase those pictures. It's a very "people-y" kind of job, and for me that is more exhausting than a nice job making big rocks into little rocks (or something like that). So I am tired. But I go through the motions, because that is just what you have to do sometimes in life.
And I guess that is really where I hope I can encourage you today. Going through the motions is not always a bad thing. Sometimes, you're "just not feeling it." That's okay. I think as a society we've forgotten that. Just because you don't feel like doing something is not always an excuse not to do it. Sometimes you need to do stuff that you don't want to do, that you don't "feel like" doing, that makes you uncomfortable or that you just don't find enjoyable. Sometimes, stuff has to be done and you just have to do it. That's real life. Sometimes, you have to just go through the motions.
I think that is the difference between marriages that last and those that do not. Our society, and sadly, even the church at times, has sent a message that marriage is about two people meeting each others' needs and making each other happy and completing each other. And the corollary to that is that if your spouse is not meeting your needs and you don't feel happy then it's okay to end the marriage, because, after all, you deserve to be happy. In lasting marriages, you find people who have valued commitment over feelings, who have accepted that two flawed people cannot always make each other happy, and who keep their vows even when they may not necessarily feel like it. Sometimes they just have to go through the motions.
In Galatians, Paul addresses the idea of "going through the motions;" He calls it "doing good." In a discussion on the subject of sowing a reaping and bearing one another's burdens, he addresses the reality that we sometimes FEEL like giving up. In chapter 6 verse 9, Paul provides us with a good reminder, which has been a source of great encouragement to me lately: ...in due season we will reap, if we do not give up. If we will "not grow weary of doing good," or, in other words, if we will continue to go through the motions of doing what is good and right, Paul says, "we will reap."
In due season.
This is the hard part for us. We want to reap today. We want to see the harvest right now. And when that does not happen, we are tempted to give up. But Paul says that we should not grow weary in doing good.
And that is my encouragement to you as well as to myself today: do not grow weary.
Do not give up.
Keep on going through the motions.
Things will get better... In due season...You WILL reap, if you do not give up.
...Just a thought...
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