Sacred space
Every day.
Every day God has a plan for my life.
Every day He wants to guide, teach, and use my life for his purposes. To abide in Him (John 15).
Every day I decide to follow or go my own way.
For years I taught a retreat curriculum that referenced the phrase, “If Satan can’t make you bad, he’ll make you busy.” That phrase has been ringing over and over in my mind recently. After a year in limbo, waiting, delays, postponements, and cancellations life took off. For many, life is moving at warp speed. It seems we are attempting to make up for all that couldn’t be done during the shutdown.
The vast majority of activity is “good”. The list is familiar: work, school, sports, church activities, clubs, travel, hobbies…the list goes on. We deserve it, right? We had a tough year and we are making up for lost time. What’s wrong with that?
I can find myself caught off guard as daily life routines subtly shift to busyness, with every moment filled to the brim and many days overflowing. It is all good, right?
Every day God has a plan for my life.
My devotion reminded me this week to pray, “Thy will be done," which I do believe is to be a daily acknowledgement. And this leads me to ask, is there room in my life today for Jesus? Is my to-do list set in stone with no room for Holy Spirit to speak, teach, or use my life to serve another?
Sacred time
Time in the Word offers encouragement, conviction, and challenge. On days I skip time with God, the day often ends with a final thought of “what did I miss today?” I wonder what God had to say to me and I missed it. It’s not a guilty feeling, but rather one of loss. I missed the living words for the day. My day went along, I checked boxes, accomplished what needed to be done. However, my relationship was missing the piece that brings deeper joy and fulfillment.
Sacred lessons
How do I look more like Christ today than yesterday? An attitude adjustment, a deepening faith, a loving heart, a forgiving action? Do others see me or Jesus? “He must increase, I must decrease” (John 3:30). Sacred lessons learned are demonstrated by change.
Sacred service
Every day God desires, in his grace, to use my life as His hands and feet for the purpose of reconciliation. 2 Corinthians 5:18-19 says, “All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to Himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation.”
Do I go through my day anticipating opportunities for sacred service? A word, an action, an answer for the hope I have in Christ. Actions that are unseen by the world but directed by God. No photo, no tweet; simply an obedient word or deed.
Sacred space provides freedom in my day for God to work and move. I have begun to anticipate this time in my day. What will God say to me, what will God teach me, and how might God use me today? Facing my day like a scavenger hunt, I watch and wait, then respond.
Every day God has a plan for my life.
Every day.
Allyson Clark serves as Next Generation Co-Director of Youth Ministries at the Baptist Convention of New England.
