Relax Already…

If you have been around long enough in our world today, you already know how stressed out people have become. We live amidst a performance based culture that promotes productivity at all costs and measures success by how well we have been performing. Everything is a contest to be won. And this frenetic mindset has led to a nation of worn out humans exhausting themselves day by day to get it all done. We have been convinced we have to have the best house, the best car, the best career, the best body, the best family, the best behavior, the best spouse et. al. In this we no longer have time to enjoy our lives or appreciate all the little things that make life sweet. We measure our value not on who we are but rather on what we do or don’t do. We have been deceived into thinking that we control every aspect of our lives and dare not let anything go or leave it to someone else. “I better do it if it’s going to get done!” And I suppose if the system actually worked, we could work ourselves into the best possible life ever. But, it doesn’t work. It serves only to occupy all of our time and energy leaving very little left. We live within a world that is spiritual in nature with much of what actually goes on being hidden behind the scenes. We unknowingly fight against forces we cannot perceive. Our human nature demands we find solutions to spiritual problems with earthly reasoning which leaves us frustrated, discouraged and defeated. Why are working so hard and receiving such little results? What are we doing wrong? What is wrong with us?  We stress and strain and strive all to no avail. We need to relax already…

God never designed life to function this way. We have been hoodwinked, deceived, sold a bill of goods, tricked and subsequently trapped. The design of man was never that he would endure life alone and somehow through enlightenment and damn hard work become his own source of sufficiency. It was never part of the plan that man would be solely responsible for his own health, his own prosperity, his own blessings and protection. If life really was a surface affair, as it often seems, it might be viable, but man is inherently spiritual functioning in a world of spirit he cannot discern. The things which are were not made of the things which do appear. The world is lost and all of its systems to promote life actually reduce life. The formula will not work. The plans are defective. The system is rigged. Man spends a lifetime pursuing in ways that do not yield fruit. So he plants more, fertilizes better and waters yet gets nothing back. It is not his effort that is at fault but rather his understanding of cause and effect. He ends up playing a game at the carnival already arranged for him to lose though winning seems so simple. Man apart from God will always be defeated. God is man’s benefactor and as such is the actual supplier of his needs; indeed his sufficiency. Man was created to rely on God and in that total trust and reliance, rest. How futile to strive so hard for health only to become sick anyway. How discouraging to strain so much to prosper only to experience lack. How disheartening to stress over your loved ones protection only to see them suffer loss. Can’t you see it? We have gotten it all wrong. We are crossing the wrong t’s and dotting the wrong i’s. We cannot find peace because we haven’t gone to the source of peace. We cannot acquire love because we haven’t inquired at Love’s hand. We have trouble prospering and being in health because we seek both only according to our own resources and not His, which He gives freely for all to enjoy. We must learn how to relax…

In the proper arrangement where we allow God to be God and we content ourselves with being human, we rely upon God to meet all of our need. We go straight to the source behind all that ever was, is and will be. We set our affections on things above and not on things of the earth. If we are honest, all of that seeking for self, working on self, and striving for self never worked anyway. The harder we work, the less we obtain. People in the world are exhausted through and through. They are tired of fighting in a fight they always seem to lose. Instead we have to learn to let go of almighty self and seek something bigger and more powerful than we have ever known. We have to stop confusing the source of our sufficiency and let God do what He promised to do. Do you know how liberating it is to finally surrender something to God’s love and care and at last relax? Imagine how little stress you would embody if you decided to trust God and let Him be God. Imagine how much better your days would become when you finally set down all of those heavy burdens, casting them all to Him. Imagine how much easier your thoughts would be if you weren’t saddled with solving every problem that came your way with your own mind and reasoning. What you have been so ardently endeavoring to do is in actuality impossible to do. You cannot see the hinderances that seem to favor one and curse another.You cannot discern what is really behind your problems that plague you and steal away your precious life. But, once you learn of God and learn how the competition works; what you are up against and why your human efforts can never work, you can begin to let God do what He promised to do. Relax already, God’s got you!

Real life begins when you stop being so determined to be your own sufficiency and reach upwards for help. You have to learn to rely on Someone who is infinitely bigger than you. You have to learn to let go of all of the negative pressures and fears and threatenings that have been driving you to the brink. You don’t preserve your health, God does. You don’t supply all of your own needs, God does. You don’t realize your hearts dreams and desires alone, God brings them to you. Don’t search the world in vain to find yourself. Let God show you who you really are. You see, once you get on the right track, the correct path, the best course, life comes alive for you. You are no longer so shook up and pressed every day. Instead you learn to trust God with all of your heart; with all that matters most to you; with the whole of your life. And in trusting Him you can relax. You can exhale. You can settle down and enjoy life. You can finally be free to experience life and love and happiness. You can appreciate the things that really matter. Oh you will always have challenges for sure, but there is nothing you will ever face that God cannot handle for you. Oh my friends, relax already. God is there.

Just some good thoughts…