Demands are being made on me all the time from within and without. There are demands as a child, demands in the in-between years, demands as a single adult, demands as a married person, demands as a parent, demands as a work colleague, demands as a family member, demands as a church member, demands as a member of society, demands, demands, demands.
That is not a bad thing – that’s just a thing of life.
The deal is to get it all right in the balance. The deal is sometimes responding to one demand will be drawback in another demand. By balance, I don’t mean each demand getting the same weighting, but I do mean each demand getting its just weighting. That means the demands of me as a husband have to be weighted heavier than me as a work colleague. That does not mean that all the time I’ll prefer to be the husband all the time, but it does mean the heavier weighting suggests I know where my priorities are. (Which keeps the wife happy!)
One of the aspects of the deal that I appreciate even more with the various demands, is that to be effective I really need to kill myself. When I get too conscious of the demands and find it too much for me and wish to withdraw from all those demands, that’s usually a good sign that I’ve forgotten why I do what I do in the first place. For from my little spot on the planet, I get all these demands as a result of being a child of God. As such I can only be successful in these demands when my life is given over to Him to control and then it is no longer demands that triggers a chore-filled response, or resentment, or selfish withdrawal or even worse the response of doing it strictly out of obligation. Rather the response will be out of joy.
When I was walking home today, it occurred to me that joy is the purest smile on your face that is saying thanks to God for everything. That smile rests on your heart even in challenging times and is the assurance that God is with you. Even with all those demands.
Just blogging.
That is all.
For His Name’s Sake
Shalom
dmcd
Life With CD 