IT'S NOT MINE...

It’s not MINE...

Lately, I have gotten a lot of feedback and compliments on MY house... IT’S NOT MINE!!! That must seem like an odd statement.

Let me explain...

Last night as I sat on the back patio I was thanking God for all the blessings in this life -- the ones I sometimes choose to overlook. And my heart began to break. I thought of the drug addict all alone shivering in an alley, the patient in a hospital or nursing home with no one to hold their hand and tell them things will be OK, the teenager fleeing abuse and neglect and living on the street somewhere with an empty stomach and a broken heart -- I cried. I prayed. I went to bed.

I woke up this morning thinking about what separates me from these people & I realized it was very little & oh-so-much! I have been given things, chances, people in my life that they don’t have & I have a GOD that I know and that I know I can trust to be there with me no matter where I am.

This really got me to thinking. I started to thank God for all MY stuff...MY stuff!!!... MY stuff??? Nope, God wasn’t hearing it. IT’S NOT MINE! It’s HIS!!! Every great, good, beautiful, lovable, wonderful thing in my life is HIS!

Hmmmm...So, it’s not MY house, MY car, MY job, MY friends, MY family...NOPE...None of it is mine! Do I get to use these things, enjoy these people? -- SURE -- but none of it is MINE!

Well, God, if it’s not MINE, How will I ever control it???

AND I realized that I can’t and I won’t and I shouldn’t.

BUT wait... There is something that is MINE...MY Control Issues... Right, God??? And He said -- ‘YES!!! BUT give me those & I will help you see that they aren’t a necessary part of your life & aren’t part of the blessings I have for you.’

Wow...IT’S NOT MINE!

God has chosen to share some really great things with me. Things He is sharing with me, things he wants me to be a good steward of and to care for and do what I can for, but to ultimately realize that they just aren’t MINE.

If you don’t know me well, you probably don’t realize how BIG -- I mean, HUGE -- this is for me. I like to know that things are MINE. MY, MY, MY __________________ (fill in the blank.) I like the feeling I get when I possess something, own it, know it belongs to me, especially if it’s something I don’t think anyone else has one exactly like. It gives me a sense of belonging & of control. AND, it’s an illusion...I don’t have control. And as poorly as I often do with it, it’s a million wonders I would want it. BUT seeing, feeling, knowing I don’t really have it has suddenly became a very free-ing thing for me! And, honestly, a bit of a scary thing, too!

IT’S NOT MINE! That doesn’t in any way relinquish me from the responsibilities I have for the things, people, gifts and blessings God has placed in my life. Quite the opposite actually -- If I remember to see every thing, person, relationship, etc that is in MY life (wait, not MY life, the life God is providing for me) as a gift from the hands of the God who paints the sunsets, built the mountains, created the seas, and spoke the world into existence, then maybe I should be careful as to how I handle ALL the things that He has entrusted into my care for such time as He sees fit.

That all sounds good, fine, and wonderful & TRUE...AND it is... BUT does that mean I think that I will suddenly not have the control issues that have plagued me for years -- those issues based mostly on fear -- No, maybe not. BUT I also realize that in exchange for all the blessings that God has given me, He is willing to take some things from me too. He will take my burdens & my struggles & my issues (and there are certainly plenty of those) and He will teach me and help me to let those things go, so that I can have room to receive more blessings that He has to share with me.

I know that accepting this and walking it out in my life won’t be easy...BUT, I also know that if I ask God, He will remind me as often as I think that something is MINE -- MY friends, MY relationships, MY house, MY problems, MY car, MY wounded feelings, MY_____________ -- that it is not MINE. That whatever IT is, IS HIS and that He will help me take care of it.

So, friend, what is YOURS??? What are you holding on to today -- good or bad -- that if given to God would simply become what He means for it to be???

Don’t expect it to be easy to give it up. It can be, but it may not be either. BUT when it is HIS, it’s good!

Thank Him for your blessings & remember to Thank Him for sharing them with you since the are HIS. Release to Him your burdens for those are His too and He will use them too if you let Him.

IT’S NOT MINE!!! IT’S NOT YOURS!!! IT IS HIS!!!

"The earth is the LORD's, and EVERYthing in it, the world and ALL who live in it;" Psalms 24:1