Tuesday, May 15, 2012

Your Only Boss Is God

The LORD has told you what is good, and this is what he requires of you: to do what is right, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God. -- Micah 6:8

What do other people expect of you? What do you expect of yourself? And what does God expect of you?

Wow. When you look at it like that, it all just seems so overwhelming. How can anyone possibly be all things to all people and to God too? No wonder we’re so stressed out.

But wait a minute. We’re not called to meet the expectations of other people. We’re not even called to please them. Oh, we’re to love them. But we don’t have to make them happy.

As for ourselves, well, we’re to do what God calls us to do. Nothing more. Nothing less. Because the only boss we’ve got is God. And He loves us.

We spend our lives trying to please people who will never truly be pleased. Because we can never do enough for them. It’s sort of like laundry. It never ends. Just when you think you’ve got it conquered, there’s that pile again. And so it goes. That’s how it is with pleasing people. Endless.

The same is true when we expect too much from ourselves. We believe what others tell us. We buy into those lies of having it all. We fill each and every moment of our day with activities and call ourselves living. But our days are endless and our hearts are empty. It’s a roller coaster that never ends.

Maybe we don’t want it to end. Because if we face the stillness that remains we realize all that we’re not. We don’t measure up to who we always thought we should be. More pressure. More disappointment. More stress and disillusionment with ourselves.

And there is God. Waiting. Calling us softly to Himself. Telling us that we are enough. He created us to be the unique and wonderful individuals that we are. We are enough -- just as we are.

So where do all those expectations come from? A world focused on self rather than Savior. A world of endless drudgery and sin rather than a world filled with light and love. We’ve lost our focus. We’ve forgotten how to determine what’s important and what is not.

So stop worrying about what others expect from you. And ease up on yourself. God’s got a plan for your life and it’s good. Stay focused on Him and let someone else deal with all the rest.