by Doc Adkins
“Be still, and know that I am God: I will be exalted among the heathen, I will be exalted in the earth. Psalm 46:10
There’s an old saying that says, “eat what you want but want what you eat.” The whole idea is that you’re welcome to take as much as you want but don’t waste it. My grandmother always told us this, “We should never waste food, because there are hungry people in the world who wish they had what we have.
The one thing that was always abundant at my grandparents house was just “good ole country cookin’. “
Have you ever uttered that phrase, “I’ve got too much stuff on my plate!”? What we mean is that our lives have become too busy. Isn’t it funny that we teach our children not to take too much food other than what they will eat and not put too much “stuff” on their plates. Yet, here many of us are as adults with way too much stuff on our own plates. We’ve allowed ourselves to be involved with so many things that it has the potential to hinder our well-being.
Personally, I enjoy being busy. I can’t stand laziness but sometimes we can become so busy that life seems to consume us. I don’t think Christ intended us to live that way. When we do get in that busy, busy mode of running, running, and running, we tend to let those nutritional things that should be on our plate slide off the side, like our prayer time and bible study. Sometimes if we do keep those things on our plate, we tend to treat them like salt and pepper and only flavor our lives with them and not really have a full course meal of the things that can give us strength and help us survive the “rat race” of life.
Sometimes our worship time slides off the side of our plate like runny gravy. It just starts dripping off and we barely even notice how far away from those around us we’ve become. When we’re in that busy mode, we tend to push aside those things that should be important. We don’t mean too. We just start playing with our fork and it just happens.
I think it is a challenge to make ourselves have a balanced plate as a Christian, but I do think it is something we should strive for. It may be we need to just re-calculate our lives at times, slow down and see what we’re actually spending time on. It may be we need to choose what are priorities and what are not. I’m sure for everybody there’s a different way to go about it but the need to keep Christ at the center of our lives is the key.
There are some things that I like to check up on once in awhile just to be sure I’m on track.
- Time – Where am I spending my time?
- Activities – What all am I involved in? Is there too much?
- Priorities – What are my priorities? Do I keep the important things where they should be?
Don’t you just love that “Be still” part of Psalm 46:10? Wow! That requires slowing down, doesn’t it? Look at the benefits. “Be still and know that I am God”. Taking a much-needed break to reflect on God and His greatness, His love, His power will help us know Him. Even in the midst of all that is going on around us we need to take that time to spend time with the Lord.
So, what’s on your plate? Is there room for thanksgiving, intercession, devotions, prayer, and most of all our wonderful God. Is there room for a grateful spirit or is gratefulness covered with obligations that keep overrunning our lives.