A Dad. Do you believe you have one? Or do you live life as an orphan — as in “if it’s to be it’s up to me”?

Sure, there’s the man who gave you life on earth (which is wonderful), but do you & I also realize we have a Dad who walks with us every day? Who is perfect, knows & sees ALL, & is accessible to us 24/7?

How would our lives be different if we lived in this reality, that we have a Heavenly Father seeking our best continuously {as many of our parents showed us}? Providing for us daily? Encouraging us when we need it & sending us messages through His word & Spirit?

Would we be less afraid?

Would we take more steps of faith & rely on His word more?

Would we tell more people that they, too, can have this Father?

Would we encourage other believers to worry less & live more?

Would we be able to relax & enjoy our days instead of measuring our success by our to-do list?

Would we care less what others think & be able to love them better instead?

I wish I’d grasped this a long time ago. It’s a much newer reality to me — that God really is my Dad and that He’s always here, always watching & listening & patiently forgiving me. He provides things I don’t know I need and withholds things I think I desperately do. I don’t understand Him always, but that doesn’t make Him & His constant presence any less real in my life.

I so don’t live in light of this many days, especially the ones where I’m just coasting through life thinking no one cares about the details of mine. If God made me, doesn’t that make my life important? Even if I’m not on stages changing lives all the time?

Our Greatest Goal

What if a big part of our life is to just learn to BE with our Father (and out of that our actions spring)?

What if our highest aim is to learn to live alongside Him — to trust Him more every coffee-fueled, demanding day — to recognize His activity & His nearness all day (& night) long?

That makes me breathe easier just thinking about it. Does it you?

What if our greatest goal is to recognize we have a true Father — & then share that same peaceful reassurance with others?

It is a bizarre reality, one many of us Christians live far from. We stress and try to control things and ‘make things happen’ in our own strength. The more I do this, He shows me, the more of a mess I make. When I let things flow from a life close to Him, they are so much prettier & enjoyable! I have FUN in my every day life. I don’t live & die by a set timeline. I look up at the sky when I’m walking. I breathe deeper. My heart is at peace.

Mary & Martha

In the story of Mary & Martha, I think it shocks most of us Americans that Jesus approves more of MARY — the seemingly “lazy sister” sitting at His feet!! I mean, helloooo! She was so unproductive. What a waste of all those hours she could’ve spent serving and doing things for Him. She wasn’t even HELPING. Isn’t that selfish?

But Jesus said, no way! Mary has chosen the greater thing, & it will not be taken from her. Martha was mired in the details of life. She wasn’t present with Him; in fact she overlooked Him til it was time to complain about another one of His kids0!

Martha didn’t realize the tasks consuming her could disappear at any time — Mary, however, had discovered the one thing that would always be hers: Him. And she clung to this gift of His presence instead of worrying about peripherals.

So many of us are Marthas — fretting over the silliest things while neglecting the greatest. What if God wants us to stop being busy Americans and start reflecting every day on His presence in our lives, on Him chilling with us on the couch at night :), on Him in the mundane & the drudgery & the restless nights & the wonderful times, too?

This doesn’t mean we do nothing, naturally. It simply means we prioritize correctly and start with Him. We then “do” out of our primary relationship with our Father.

An important lesson in this story is this: People around us may not approve of our decision to rest in Him. They’ll try to rush us. They’ll try to put us on their schedule & distract us from His agenda. They’ll want us to prioritize what they do and pull us away from our most important duties — even with seemingly good ones.

There’s a popular saying that would serve us well here:

Don’t let others dictate your life. Lovingly but firmly push back on their demands, when they conflict with His place in your life. You can’t serve two masters.

Jesus Begins Here

There must be a crucial reason why Jesus’s most famous prayer starts here — with our Father. Our Dad is the point of our whole faith, after all, and the reason Jesus lived on earth & died & rose again.

Jesus came to reconnect us to OUR FATHER. He didn’t come to bring honor to Himself, but to His Dad — our Dad — and to show you & I how to live connected to Him. No wonder Jesus was delighted at Mary: She’d found the greater Thing! She’d learned to let go of the extraneous & rest with Him.

We should start every endeavor here… all else springs from this relationship. Otherwise we’ll live in toil & focus on needless, frivolous worries. We’ll lose sight of the fact that we already HAVE what we’re striving for. We’ll exhaust ourselves because we won’t remember that our Father’s already given it to us {or is offering us something better}. We’ll begin living as if we are orphans!

So today, Monday, let’s start our weeks here. Think on what it means to have a Heavenly Father who watches over you & all the affairs of your life… who sends you what you need at the proper time. The One who comforts you. You have a Dad, and He cares for you.

In light of this, see how differently your week unfolds. You may find that His peace will guide you & I, as we learn to rely on Him as our Father.