Right Living is Now Living

Widowed and Fatherless, 1888

Thomas Benjamin Kennington

1 Thessalonians 5:18
Give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus.

Psalm 118:24

This is the day the LORD has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it.

Peter, Paul, and Mary, they ride bikes, play basketball, enjoy the sunshine, cold though it is. I pick Beth up and place her on her bike, hoping it will loosen up her legs. It's noon and she hasn't stood or walked yet. 

A flare they call it. We're ten days into one and today is the worst day. Did seasonal allergies trigger it, I wonder? Tree pollen is out and her allergy shiners are back. 

They don't really know why flares occur.

She turns the wheels of the bike with effort. Halfway down the driveway, she stops and rests. Then, making it back to the house, she gets off the bike and crawls to a chair. She asks for Goldish and eats them while she watches her siblings play. I'm grateful she asked for food, but inside I'm hurting at the reality before me. 

Sometimes, she's an invalid.

Despair washes over me as I watch her watching them. What am I supposed to do with this, God?

One sentence enters my mind:  This is the day the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it. Psalm 118:24

What does that really mean? Why did it come to me just now?

Regardless of what today is, it is still His day. He created and ordered this day. It's not mine. It's not Beth's. We can hope for what we want, pray for it even, but the Author is in control. 

But this truth remains: Everything God gives is a gift, albeit sometimes disguised.

She's sleeping now. She wakes up needy, crying, every time now. It's been that way for months, apparently because the inactivity of sleep causes the joint pain to worsen. Yet I can't pull her nap; she needs it more than ever. 

My conclusions today, maybe they can help you. 

We aren't promised tomorrow. We aren't promised happiness. We aren't promised that our children will be healthy, that they'll outlive us, that our spouses will survive their next day at work.

There's so much we take for granted, until something really sad happens. 

It's in the sadness, and in the trying to crawl out of it, that we really learn how to live. 

The two verses that came to me today, they teach us right living.

God's will for us in Christ Jesus is to give thanks in all things. If your husband has an accident and can no longer work, give thanks. If your child is sometimes an invalid, give thanks. If your best friend gets breast cancer, give thanks.

This is the day the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it. Rejoice and be glad? How? 

We do this by living in the moment.

Right now I can rejoice that Beth fits perfectly in my lap. I can rejoice that when she sleeps, her beautiful face, with long eyelashes resting on perfect skin, it's a joy to behold. The peaceful rhythm of her breathing, it fills me with gratitude for my daughters, given to me, an old girl, at ages 40 and 42. 

In this moment, right now, there is blessing. I challenge you to prove this false. 

Friend, it is truth. You will always be able to find something about this moment, that is beautiful. Call it grace. The grace of the moment.

The wrong way to live is to wish for a different story. To worry about tomorrow. To wonder how you'll get through. To wonder why others have it easier. 

Right living is now living. Thanks-living.

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