Settling In The Moment

Saturdays bring relief.

The early morning phone calls from the UK give way to a lazy, football-watching start for some and a leisurely doze for others. The boys, needless to say, don’t buy into the ‘lazy’ nature of much of it. Rufus still announces ‘awake time, Mummy’ when it’s definitely sleep time. And breakfast is still an early necessity.

Busy getting breakfast on the go…

But Saturdays bring breathing space amidst current intensities. Books and business still flit in and out of conversations and concerns, but we rest together. Eating, talking, playing, seeing friends, exploring. It’s not always like this, but often.

Rhythms, routines and contentment in this moment. Settled.

And yet that same visa anxiety rears its head and slips in through a feeling in the pit of my stomach, a thought as I wake up, a worry as we jump into life here.

The battle to trust God amidst it all rages on. It almost intensifies the more settled we get, as we try to keep a light hold on the life that is unfolding around us. Trusting God means trusting that His ways are not just unstoppable but the best. Whatever His plan is for us – whether it be Naperville or not – we’re praying that we’d be up for that rather than clinging to our own ways. The ‘cling’ comes with panic that it might be taken away.

Instead, we try to look up. To look to Jesus. The one who is our Shepherd King. The one in whom we are secure – not just now but on into eternity. The one who has us and our path.

‘And he shall stand and shepherd his flock in the strength of the Lord, in the majesty of the name of the Lord his God. And they shall dwell secure, for now he shall be great to the ends of the earth. And he shall be their peace. (Micah 4v4-5)

While Micah is speaking to God’s people hundreds of years before Jesus was on the earth, he speaks of the same Jesus that we know and trust now. The same majesty, the same shepherding, the same security and peace.

Saturdays bring relief, but being reminded of these truths brings peace to my anxious heart.

 

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