Wow, I’m behind…
I’ve had several important thoughts and
connections running through my mind regarding the daily office this week. Well, actually there’s a whole comedy of
errors in regard to the daily office, at all, as I began this year, so maybe I
should share that first.
Last year, I received a Sacred Ordinary Days Planner for
Christmas. I absolutely loved it! It was an excellent place to keep track of…
well… everything going on in life. It
provided me with ample space for reflection and vision casting, and it also included
daily quotes and the Daily Office Scriptures from the Book of Common Prayer. I
asked for a new one, this Christmas, and I found it under the tree! Yay for Christmas lists!
Well… several days into the new year, I was
like, “I don’t think this is the daily office.”
Other bloggers who tend to follow the BCP daily office were blogging
about stuff that didn’t add up, and there were not enough Scripture references
in my planner. As it turns out, the
creators of Sacred Ordinary Days
decided to go with the RCL daily office references, this time around, so I wasn’t
crazy… I just had a different list.
It took me until a few days ago to figure
out how I was going to handle this, and right now my plan is simply to read
both the BCP and the RCL, so if I’m blogging about Scripture that doesn’t line
up with your version of the daily office, please note that I’m not wrong.
I’m just diversifying…
Anyway…
This one struck a chord, this week, as I frantically tried to pull
together the most poorly planned party I have ever thrown in my life…
Galatians
1:10, “Am I now trying to win the approval of human beings, or of God? Or am I
trying to please people? If I were still trying to please people, I would not
be a servant of Christ.
I don’t fancy myself as a people pleaser,
but lately I am literally, physically sick when I feel as if I have
disappointed anyone in any way. That
stinks, because the chances that I can get through a single hour (let alone a
single day) without disappointing someone
are close to non-existent. I have a
lot of people. I can’t make everybody
happy, even though I try really hard.
Did you catch that? Turns out, I am a people pleaser. I don’t even know when it happened. I used to be great at offending everybody! I think I’ve lost my edge.
If I’m honest, I don’t really want to be offensive, but I also don’t want to back away
from being who I was created to be in every situation. There’s a fine line. Actually, I’m not even sure there is a line. Sometimes it all just gets garbled together
and the best I can do is to pray I’m a little more like Jesus than I was
yesterday and to look for ways to put that transformation into practice.
One thing I’m trying to work on this year
is intentionality. I’m trying to spend
my time, energy, and resources on things that make a positive impact on the
lives of others—not to please them,
not to gain any kind of accolade for myself, but to minister to them… to meet
needs… to serve Christ. It’s super hard. It’s expensive. And other people don’t ‘get it.’ Guess what?
That’s totally OK.
So here’s to nonconformity, intentional
living, and more daily office Scriptures than I ever thought I’d try to
incorporate into my life at one time…
L.
PS I
would love to hear about practical ways my readers are impacting the lives of
others, especially ways that I could support/promote with FGT in coming weeks. Please feel free to comment!
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