My husband and I have some good friends that we enjoy talking to as we go through this season of being first time parents. We sort of walk it out together, although their kids are a little bit older than our girl.
They encourage us and inspire us as they share their experiences and the wisdom they’ve gained from others.
It’s a blessing.
And I can only hope we do the same for them in some way.
One night during a talk with some of those friends, the conversation shifted–as it always does–to life and God’s working in it.
Out of frustration with our own efforts to manage our lives and find peace in a series of steps, our friend inhaled deeply and put her hands to her chest. Then, as she exhaled, she said, “My hope is not in a system.”
Though unnoticeable, her words shook me at the core.
I recounted the many times I’d put my hope in a system, even as I try to live inspired.
But the truth is: life is not a math problem. And if it were, it wouldn’t make the least bit of sense on paper. In life, we can’t follow a simple procedure and always get the same result. That’s not promised to us here.
Instead, I wake up each day wanting to see inspired living as a constant leaning in to God as he guides me through the ebbs and flows of life.
Though He uses others to give me waves of inspiration, there’s no telling how long it will take to ride that wave out. There’s the time of processing. The time it takes to work it out in my life.
One moment may take years to process in a way that I can see the lessons in it.
Another may take a day.
And most times, I share what I’m learning as things are still being worked out in my life.
After all, no one ever said we have to figure it all out. Or that we will even come close to doing that.
And I’m okay with that.
I’m open to it.
Like Jesus told his apostles in Acts 1:7, “It is not for you to know times or seasons that the Father has fixed by his own authority.”
This is Day 22 of the series, 31 Days of Inspired Living. Join me through the month of October as I write about what I think it looks like to find the inspiration that makes us better. I’ll also offer some encouragement for your journey. In case you missed a day, you can find previous posts in the series here.
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Love this! & Love your writing style. So amazing that we had such a similar convo last night! God is at work. I love how he communicates things and gets our attention through guiding conversations and his truth our way through multiple people in our lives at the same time. Thanks for writing this, C!