Chasing Figments

One of my friends is moving to Texas with her husband at the end of this month. She told me she is nervous about it as well as excited, that there are bad things about leaving as well as good. I told her that our focus should not be on either the good or the bad, but on God, and then we lean on Him for the strength to make it through the bad and thank Him for what good He sends us.

Our lives here are not to be for our own enrichment or even our own happiness. I believe God wants us to be happy here and sends blessings our way to show us He cares, but our lives are to be about Him. It's not just that He deserves all of our focus; it's more than that. Our focus on Him doesn't add to Him just like our choosing things other than Him doesn't detract from Him. He's complete without us. It's that we can't find true happiness or peace when we look to something else to fulfill us.

It is a lesson that is very hard to learn. I've thought I've learned it many times, only to resort to something else when I'm disappointed in my quest for happiness elsewhere. I don't run to God first. Often, I run away from Him. This time has been better, at least. I ran a few steps away, but stopped in my tracks and realized what I was doing. I'm now trying to cling to Him, but it is hard to keep believing in His goodness sometimes when things around you seem to be crumbling. I have to keep in mind that He has brought me this far, through far worse than what I'm facing now, and that He will never leave me. Jeremiah 29:11 says it so well, but I think this time, I'll let you look it up for yourselves.