Riding down the interstate with my two most precious passengers (my two daughters, for those of you who donโt know me), the driver in front of me suddenly slams on his brakes. I react and all is well, except that my blood pressure suddenly spikes and Iโm wondering what kind of Neanderthal, distracted driving was so important that it almost hurt my babies. In the midst of my grumbling, my youngest daughterโs response intercepts my though pattern: โAwwwโฆ I even had the top on it!โย
Her drink had spilled. We were all almost killed, and she was worried about her drink. How sweet is that? How innocent and trusting! She had no clue about the dangers outside our car-world, and why should she? Mommy was at the wheel, and worrying about the dangers outside is Mommyโs job. Her job was to put the top back on the drink so it didnโt spill. Of course, I didnโt try to tell her about the danger. Instead, I helped her learn how to do her job better, โHoney, after you put the top on, you have to screw it on, too... Iโm proud of you for remembering to put the top on, though... Donโt worry about the mess. Weโll clean it up together when we get home.โย
And then itโs over. You see, she and I have a deal to keep getting better. We donโt aim for perfection; we aim for improvement. It helps us to spend less time mad at ourselves (and each other) and more time on task focused on the future if we remind ourselves that weโre getting better, and thatโs a good thing. Putting the top back on was better than forgetting. Now letโs work on twisting it closed next time.ย
I wonder how many times God looks at me and doesnโt say, โOh, sweet child, yes, your heart is breaking but let me tell you what the real danger isโฆโ No, He meets me in my world; He consoles me and helps me see how to get better. He loves me. He loves me. He loves me. And Heโs got control of the wheel. It is His job to worry about the dangers outside the task He sets me to. I should let him. I know He can do it better than I can. And Iโm learning. I guess you could say that Iโm getting better.ย
How about you? Iโm guessing most of you are not that different than I am in that you want to worry about the things you have no business worrying over. Iโm guessing that youโre also a lot like me in that God is a lot more capable than you are? I encourage you to keep getting better at trusting Him. Focus on what you can improve, like remembering to twist the cap back on, and leave the rest to Him. Heโs not an imaginary friend; Heโs real, He is here, Heโs powerful, and He demonstrates it every day. But you donโt get to watch His show if youโre trying to be in the middle of it. Sit back and let Him show you His mastery. It is beautiful.ย
Iโll close with these words from a wonderful book titled Wild Goose Chase by Mark Batterson:ย
ย โ๐๐ฐ๐ณ๐ฅ, ๐ต๐ฉ๐ข๐ฏ๐ฌ ๐ ๐ฐ๐ถ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ข๐ต ๐ ๐ฐ๐ถ ๐ธ๐ข๐ฏ๐ต ๐ถ๐ด ๐ต๐ฐ ๐จ๐ฆ๐ต ๐ธ๐ฉ๐ฆ๐ณ๐ฆ ๐ ๐ฐ๐ถ ๐ธ๐ข๐ฏ๐ต ๐ถ๐ด ๐ต๐ฐ ๐จ๐ฐ ๐ฎ๐ฐ๐ณ๐ฆ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ข๐ฏ ๐ธ๐ฆ ๐ธ๐ข๐ฏ๐ต ๐ต๐ฐ ๐จ๐ฆ๐ต ๐ธ๐ฉ๐ฆ๐ณ๐ฆ ๐ ๐ฐ๐ถ ๐ธ๐ข๐ฏ๐ต ๐ถ๐ด ๐ต๐ฐ ๐จ๐ฐ.โโฆ ๐๐ฆ ๐ฑ๐ถ๐ต ๐ด๐ฐ ๐ฎ๐ถ๐ค๐ฉ ๐ฑ๐ณ๐ฆ๐ด๐ด๐ถ๐ณ๐ฆ ๐ฐ๐ฏ ๐ฐ๐ถ๐ณ๐ด๐ฆ๐ญ๐ท๐ฆ๐ด, ๐ข๐ด ๐ช๐ง ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ฆ๐ต๐ฆ๐ณ๐ฏ๐ข๐ญ ๐ฑ๐ญ๐ข๐ฏ๐ด ๐ฐ๐ง ๐ข๐ญ๐ฎ๐ช๐จ๐ฉ๐ต๐บ ๐๐ฐ๐ฅ ๐ข๐ณ๐ฆ ๐ค๐ฐ๐ฏ๐ต๐ช๐ฏ๐จ๐ฆ๐ฏ๐ต ๐ถ๐ฑ๐ฐ๐ฏ ๐ฐ๐ถ๐ณ ๐ข๐ฃ๐ช๐ญ๐ช๐ต๐บ ๐ต๐ฐ ๐ฅ๐ฆ๐ค๐ช๐ฑ๐ฉ๐ฆ๐ณ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ๐ฎโฆ ๐๐ฏ๐ฅ ๐ช๐ง ๐ธ๐ฆ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ช๐ฏ๐ฌ ๐ฐ๐ฏ๐ฆ ๐ฎ๐ช๐ด๐ด๐ต๐ฆ๐ฑ ๐ค๐ข๐ฏ ๐ง๐ณ๐ถ๐ด๐ต๐ณ๐ข๐ต๐ฆ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ฑ๐ณ๐ฐ๐ท๐ช๐ฅ๐ฆ๐ฏ๐ต๐ช๐ข๐ญ ๐ฑ๐ญ๐ข๐ฏ๐ด ๐ฐ๐ง ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐๐ฎ๐ฏ๐ช๐ฑ๐ฐ๐ต๐ฆ๐ฏ๐ต ๐๐ฏ๐ฆ, ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ๐ฏ ๐ฐ๐ถ๐ณ ๐๐ฐ๐ฅ ๐ช๐ด ๐ธ๐ข๐บ ๐ต๐ฐ๐ฐ ๐ด๐ฎ๐ข๐ญ๐ญ. ๐๐ฐ๐ต ๐ฐ๐ฏ๐ญ๐บ ๐ฅ๐ฐ๐ฆ๐ด ๐๐ฐ๐ฅ ๐ธ๐ข๐ฏ๐ต ๐ถ๐ด ๐ต๐ฐ ๐จ๐ฆ๐ต ๐ธ๐ฉ๐ฆ๐ณ๐ฆ ๐๐ฐ๐ฅ ๐ธ๐ข๐ฏ๐ต๐ด ๐ถ๐ด ๐ต๐ฐ ๐จ๐ฐ ๐ฎ๐ฐ๐ณ๐ฆ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ข๐ฏ ๐ธ๐ฆ ๐ธ๐ข๐ฏ๐ต ๐ต๐ฐ ๐จ๐ฆ๐ต ๐ธ๐ฉ๐ฆ๐ณ๐ฆ ๐๐ฐ๐ฅ ๐ธ๐ข๐ฏ๐ต๐ด ๐ถ๐ด ๐ต๐ฐ ๐จ๐ฐ, ๐ฃ๐ถ๐ต ๐๐ฆ ๐ช๐ด ๐ข๐ธ๐ง๐ถ๐ญ๐ญ๐บ ๐จ๐ฐ๐ฐ๐ฅ ๐ข๐ต ๐จ๐ฆ๐ต๐ต๐ช๐ฏ๐จ ๐ถ๐ด ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ๐ณ๐ฆ. ๐๐ฆ ๐ฎ๐ข๐บ ๐ฏ๐ฐ๐ต ๐ข๐ญ๐ธ๐ข๐บ๐ด ๐ณ๐ฆ๐ท๐ฆ๐ข๐ญ ๐๐ช๐ด ๐ฑ๐ญ๐ข๐ฏ๐ด ๐ฉ๐ฐ๐ธ ๐ฐ๐ณ ๐ธ๐ฉ๐ฆ๐ฏ ๐ธ๐ฆ ๐ธ๐ข๐ฏ๐ต ๐๐ช๐ฎ ๐ต๐ฐ. ๐๐ถ๐ต ๐ธ๐ฉ๐ฆ๐ฏ ๐ธ๐ฆ ๐ค๐ฉ๐ข๐ด๐ฆ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐๐ช๐ญ๐ฅ ๐๐ฐ๐ฐ๐ด๐ฆ [๐๐ฐ๐ญ๐บ ๐๐ฑ๐ช๐ณ๐ช๐ต], ๐ฐ๐ถ๐ณ ๐ง๐ถ๐ต๐ถ๐ณ๐ฆ ๐ฃ๐ฆ๐ค๐ฐ๐ฎ๐ฆ๐ด ๐๐ช๐ด ๐ณ๐ฆ๐ด๐ฑ๐ฐ๐ฏ๐ด๐ช๐ฃ๐ช๐ญ๐ช๐ต๐บ. โ๐๐ฏ ๐ฉ๐ช๐ด ๐ฉ๐ฆ๐ข๐ณ๐ต ๐ข ๐ฎ๐ข๐ฏ ๐ฑ๐ญ๐ข๐ฏ๐ด ๐ฉ๐ช๐ด ๐ค๐ฐ๐ถ๐ณ๐ด๐ฆ, ๐ฃ๐ถ๐ต ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐๐ฐ๐ณ๐ฅ ๐ฅ๐ฆ๐ต๐ฆ๐ณ๐ฎ๐ช๐ฏ๐ฆ๐ด ๐ฉ๐ช๐ด ๐ด๐ต๐ฆ๐ฑ๐ด.โ ๐๐ณ๐ฐ๐ท๐ฆ๐ณ๐ฃ๐ด 16:9