My Daily Bread


My love-hate relationship with goals and routines continues to be the “Bane” of my existence.  I go through seasons of power-house routines: vocal workouts, physical workouts, eating clean, up early meditating and reading, setting my mindset and heart for the day, good parenting and homeschooling routines.  Then my strength empties and I find myself weary. 



Who can live up to an optimum existence?  Is anyone living optimally?  Pinterest, HGTV, reality TV, influencers – and the list goes on with secular religiosity (#seculosity) indoctrinating us into an “optimum living” lifestyle.  We are a culture of secular preachers.  “Christian witnessing” is the least of religious offenders nowadays. 

There is constant witnessing from everyone you know on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, and the all social media churches and their parishioners telling you who you should be and where you are not up to par.  You’re missing out because you don’t fast intermittently or eat a completely plant-based diet or take a polar-plunge everyday.  Asking for a friend: How do you measure up to all these achievers?  How do you adopt the lifestyle of the influencers?  How do you: “Be your best self,” “Be kind,” “Be thankful,” “Be financially free,” “Love yourself,” “Win the day,” “Just Do It….” or this or that or the other thing….



Through the clamor of these religious shackles, Jesus reaches out to us who are exhausted from our attempts to keep the cultural law and says, "Come. Come to me.  I will give you rest.”  He embraces us who are weary from trying so hard to keep these unprecedented standards and says, here’s my burden for you to carry.  He takes the heavy packages from our arms and gives us His peace to carry instead.  He removes the lie that it is not good enough to only be a mom, but I must also be a physically fit, perfectly healthy and detoxed, emotionally sound, completely kind, organized, creative and crafty homeschool mom, with a spotlessly clean and beautifully decorated house that reflects exactly who I am (which actually is just a style I picked up from HGTV), and have a nutritious dinner ready at 6 p.m. mom.  Oh!  And then all the read-alouds that I am supposed to do each day too.   

He removes that lie, and He reminds me I am fearfully and wonderfully made, and so are my children, and he gives me my daily bread.
When the Israelites were led into the desert, all their optimum living came to a halt too.  You might even say they were quarantined for a little while...like 40 years…they weren’t improving their resumes, working out at the gym and juicing, learning new skills for the next job, decorating in the latest HGTV styles and colors, finding the best Keto recipe on Pinterest, becoming better versions of themselves, and they didn’t have any vices or entertainment either.  They weren't improving the collective with random acts of kindness and making masks. They couldn’t even hunt or gather for their own most basic needs.  

God required one thing of them: to trust that He would supply absolutely all they needed each day.


He sent food right to their tent openings everyday – manna, bread from Heaven.  He provided their daily bread.  If they got clever and disciplined and worked hard to prepare for the next day or weeks in advance, the bread became moldy and full of worms and had to be thrown out.  They couldn’t plan for the next day, much less the future.  Each and every day, the Lord faithfully fed them and met their needs, miraculously.  


Trusting daily – moment by moment was living their best lives.  Winning the day!
 
I really don’t have what it takes to rise to the top and be the best.  Those days are a mere memory.  Incorporating the practices of the influencers and all their ideas for living optimally just end up throwing me under the bus.   

But I can walk with Jesus and enjoy the peaceful waters and green pastures He leads me beside. I can enjoy what He’s given my hands to do right now, and leave tomorrow’s work for tomorrow.  And right now, while I am quarantined much like the Israelites were, I can rely on my heavenly Father, who is absolutely giddy about me, for my daily nourishment.   

My best self is when I'm with Him, enjoying His company and the pleasures He gives.



solideogloria







#Seculosity
"Seculosity: How Career, Parenting, Technology, Food, Politics, and Romance Became Our New Religion and What to Do about It" by David Zahl


Available on Amazon

Comments

  1. PaulaApril 25, 2020 at 6:21 PM

    Wow! Beautifully written and deeply felt, Christi.
    Part of me is sad for the continuing struggle you speak of to try (in my own words) to “do it all, and do it well.”
    That’s such a heavy burden, and results in frustration, guilt, feelings of failure, and a lack of peace and contentment.
    It sounds like you are working on laying that burden down and letting these artificial expectations go. I’m so glad.
    Perhaps this surreal COVID 19 time, with its forced isolation, and the absence of so much that has filled our lives, has unintended benefits.
    In the original “Frozen” movie, the song “Let it go” frequently goes through my head these days
    So much we thought we could control, we now realize we can’t. So, it’s my choice to “Let go” of those anxiety producing things, and embrace a slower, more gentle and humane way to live. I hope when “normal” life returns, those lesson will remain as a good legacy from these tragic circumstances.

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