Do you pray for “all to be well” with your life? Your family–spouse, job, finances? I do.
Or, I did. Until I realized I didn’t live in Eden anymore. I’m not saying I don’t pray about these concerns – I’ve just learned over the years that, not all’s going to be well, all at the same time, no matter how hard I try.
My lovely sister, Carol, sometimes ends our phone conversations with the, all is well phrase, but she means something different. It’s not a wish or positive thinking. She is blessing me with, “All is well in Christ.” He’s our anchor. We’re safe. Let’s go to bed.
What I’m discussing here, is the thinking that I want all to be well, all the time, with everything, everywhere in my life. I didn’t realize it, but I was striving for the impossible. That’s trying to have a perfect life. The challenge to align all my little stars in my little nucleus and try to get them to stay put has been a futile endeavor. One star usually and always goes rogue on me.
In my defense, and yours (if you’re relating), is that we were made in God’s image–we were made to reside in Paradise. In Perfection – where all was well, all the time. But then, came the Fall. And the stars got out of their perfect alignment, not in the universe, but in our hearts. Even though Adam and Eve were the ones expelled from the Garden of Eden, we became exiled from our homeland. So, the Great Pull begins. We were created with a mindset to live in a Perfect World but live our lives as refugees in a Fallen World.
It was around 1974 when I surrendered my life to Jesus Christ and began a relationship that will not let me go. Before that I was merely in a religion, and not even committed to that. I couldn’t keep up with the laws or the rules of the religion, so to get rid of my guilt I got rid of the rules and threw God out with the bath water. Guilt was gone, at least for a while. Until, guilt from making mistakes in my young life drove me back to God– but this time I didn’t put my trust in the rules, I put my trust in God. Grace and forgiveness and knowing that I had the assurance of salvation gave me unspeakable joy. Oh, happy day, when Jesus washed my sins away.
But I made a mistake in my young Christian walk. Even though I knew I had to be obedient to God and work on my sin nature every day – I didn’t realize that Eden was something I would miss and strive to return to. The same weekend that I had planned a great get-a-way trip with a friend, my beautiful Himalayan cat of 16 years died. I can’t get sad stars to stay out of the way of my happy stars. The challenge, living as refugees, is that we need to come to grips with the sad stars. Paul encourages us to be content in whatever state we’re in, so we don’t lose heart, or lose our minds.
The heart wish – for my marriage to be without arguments, for my children to be healthy, for my relationships to be wonderful, and for our finances to reach their perfect goals – all at the same time. Oh, happy day. None of this in and of itself is wrong – it’s just that I had no idea that not only did I have a sin nature to combat – I had a false entitlement to a perfect world to combat. You can’t have everything perfect if you don’t live in Eden anymore. But I must remind myself every day.
Call it what you want, aligning your stars, being a control freak, no matter. The Apostle Paul tells us to keep our eye on the goal. In the classic movie “Now, Vogager,” Bette Davis in the closing shot, stares up at the sky and says, “Don’t let’s ask for the moon, we have the stars.” But I do shoot for the moon in all I do, and to strive for excellence – to keep my eye on the goal, so at least I’ll land somewhere in those pesky stars. Where on any given day, one will get out of line – then my sister will call and tell me all is well. All is well in Christ. All is perfect in Christ Jesus – all the time.