What About Right Now?
Talking about my relationship to busyness is often where I get real vulnerable. Being FULL is what I’ve grown accustomed to; managing from tasks to tasks and person to person is where I think I thrive. “Hurry up and get to it, Taylor!” “Build that empire!” “Buy that house!” “Find that husband!” “Go and have fun with your friends!” “Plan that trip to enjoy!” “Enjoy it!” “Relax!” “Get back to it!” I carry both the chains of this life and the throne, and the month of July has been no different. If I’m describing you, too, just shake your head, say ‘Amen’, and keep reading. In my prayer journal, you will see the pattern of me thanking God for a bunch of stuff and then turning around and (you probably guessed it) … asking Him for a bunch of more stuff. I spend so much time asking God for what’s next in my life. I say I’m grateful. I say I’m satisfied, but in staring my truth in the face, how have I truly been stewarding over what He’s already given me? How have I exercised stewardship over my body, my mind, my heart, my friendships, my romantic relationships, my family, both jobs, my tribe, and the number of other blessings God has placed on my list? Have I? Have you?
Stewardship, as defined by the Holman Bible Dictionary, is the utilization and management of all the resources that God provides for the betterment of His creation and, ultimately, for His glory. For my seasoned (and lightly seasoned) saints, this means that being a steward of God is not so much about ordering your resources so that YOU can spend them however you want as it is about ordering your life in such a way that God can spend you however He wants. Read that again: … ORDERING YOUR LIFE IN SUCH A WAY THAT GOD CAN SPEND YOU HOWEVER HE WANTS. What a task! Instead of ordering my life for ME and my “busy”, I must seek the wisdom to order my steps for and towards God. Whew!
In my current study of the wise book of Proverbs, I am learning a wealth of knowledge about the life, works, and heart posture of its majority author, Solomon. Solomon was truly both a servant of God and king of the ages with wisdom, wealth, honor, prosperity, and longevity, bestowed to him directly from God (read 1 Kings 3: 3 – 15 here and see here). While bringing my busyness and inquiries regarding my own stewardship to His feet, God decided to have Solomon bring some wise words along to me and you in Proverbs 24 and specifically in verse 27,
“Prepare your work outside and make it ready for yourself in the field; afterwards, then, build your house.”
In this special proverb, God, by way of Solomon, instructs us towards an order; to first, do your work in the field, and then to make it ready and livable for yourself, and later to build your comfort. Whether it is in your career, in your community, in your “situationship”, in taking care of your physical body, in your heart, or even in your savings account, there is work to do in the WHOLE field that is your life right now that once fruitful, will elevate everything you touch. Your focus should be here, in the “right now”. So much strife and heartache we suffer by focusing on things that take us away from preparing in the present, from doing what we can right where we are. This is our “outside” work. Are you happy where your life is? Do you like the way you take feedback right now? Are your current friendships, relationships that serve you right now? Is how you eat and use your body serving you right this second? Are the boundaries you’ve set allowing you to show up for both yourself and your loved ones fully RIGHT NOW? My dearest, why would you take on more if you still need to learn the lesson of how to take care of what you have? You have been given the blessing of doing the work of making yourself ready right now. This is our second task. Make your life in your singleness or in your interim or in whatever waiting room God has you in right now, a space where YOU can live.
Once you have done the hard work of preparing you and your world into a place suitable for you and God, He will bless you in the building of your (His) house. Your diligence in giving your life over to Him in the present makes the task of establishing comfort easier; you will be prepared for that child, that new job, that wife or husband, that ministry, that house, that business, that acceptance letter, and that family because you have shown God how you have learned to till His field and serve Him with every part of who you are. The order that God gives through Solomon is not to harm you or withhold your blessings or be old-fashioned; it is to ease the anxiety of being wrapped up in “busyness” and unpreparedness for the fire and fullness of the One holding too many blessings with your name on them. He will continue to lift you up and spend you, even in your tribulations, so that the world can always place its finger on what grace looked like, looks like RIGHT NOW, and will continue to be forevermore.