Busy much?
A huge struggle for me is a desire to be a part of what is going on all around me. I want to always be around people. I love hanging out, playing games or watching movies with others. In our marriage, I mostly make the social plans, and my wife is happy to go and do whatever, it’s just her personality. There was a time when we had been going and doing so much that it finally wore on her; it was wearing on me as well.
We had a full evening of plans. Of course, I was oblivious and saying yes to others, yes to plans, yes to hanging out with people, etc. I even had a stomachache and still said yes. Ultimately I was saying no to my wife, no to serving my wife, no to my health. I lost sight of why we were hanging out so much and leading my wife well. I wasn’t paying attention to how she was doing. This resulted in an explosion of emotion in which I knew we just needed to go home and rest.
Our ultimate goal is to worship and give praise to Jesus in everything we do, to live a life that represents the Gospel. We accomplish that by living out our identity of being a family of missionary servants. Many times we just lose sight of this. We get so wrapped up in the idea and once things get moving and things of life whirl by, the idea or vision can turn into an obsession, causing us to lose focus of our goal.
In my personal story above, I had lost sight of the family aspect by not leading my wife well by saying yes to all other things. There was nothing inherently wrong with going and doing, but I had let that take precedence. Being social rather than worshipping Christ had captivated my heart. Plain and simple, we are forgetful people. We need to be reminded of the Gospel each and every day. This does two things; it allows us to humbly confess our sins and shortcomings to our God who shows us mercy and forgiveness. It also shows us how helpless we are and that Christ has redeemed us and given us His righteousness through the shedding of His blood. In conclusion, I leave you with a quote from an article by Donald Whitney. Donald Whitney quotes Martin Luther and goes on to explain the necessity of preaching the gospel to yourself every day.
“Martin Luther encouraged Christians: ‘Preach the gospel to yourself every day.’ So there are times in every day when we need the reminder that what we are doing, saying, or thinking is sinful and needs to be taken by repentance to the cross of Jesus for forgiveness. Also, there are moments each day when we require a fresh awareness that a Christian lives in the freedom of God’s forgiveness and the righteousness of Christ because of the person and work of Jesus.”1
1 Whitney, Donald. (2011, February 1) Seeing the Gospel in the Word of God. Retrieved from http://www.ligonier.org/learn/articles/seeing-gospel-word-god/