A wise friend once told me it’s impossible to entertain two captivating thoughts at the same time. She proved it with this little game…Picture a tantalizing steak…Now picture an ice cream sundae. Describe it. You’ve forgotten about the steak, haven’t you? There are messages that come into our minds all day…there is God’s truth, and there’s what the world says. There is not room in our minds to have both fully captivate us at the same time. And those captivating thoughts direct us.

Our home has a room in the very center. This room directs the traffic flow. You must pass through it to get to all other places. You can see it from every other room. We have used it as our dining room. With a beautiful dining room table and a china cabinet full of fragile, lovely things. You have to read don’t Miss the Moment to understand this (posted June 9th), but when Micah died, I told Will I wanted to get rid of the dining room table. “So do it,” he said casually. “Give it away.”

“What?!! Give it away? What a crazy thought. Wait a minute…we could actually do that? What a freeing thought. But, letting go of that table meant letting go of something I was holding onto dearly…someday. Someday I’ll have a two-story home like the one I grew up in and there will be a dining room tucked away for special occasions. Someday in the next house we’ll need it. The someday in my mind has always held a nice dining room and one I wasn’t sure I could part with.

But dinners in our home right now include pudgy fingers smudging raspberries on the table, half eaten bananas on the floor, milk spills and sticky peanut putter….and at the last dinner party here we served Domino’s pizza on paper plates. Someday feels far away. And what in the world is wrong with this house? Or eating in our kitchen? Why do we need more? We have been so blessed!

Someday my kids will be in school and I’ll have time. Someday I’ll be able to participate in that ministry…what about the ministry I’m in now? What about the little children looking up at me who I can tell about Jesus as they learn about life? Someday, we’ll have enough to give more away. What about what we have now? Someday, when we have more children and our family is complete. What about Mary and John? Isn’t life full and overflowing? Someday I’ll lay down everything and REALLY follow Jesus. At once they left their nets and followed him (Matthew 4:20). Someday when I do this, God will love me more. He says he loves me EVEN AS He loves Jesus, His beloved Son…no matter what…right now.

Someday says “it is coming.” Jesus says “it is finished.” We don’t need anything in the future that he hasn’t made available to us right now by the finished work of the cross. I think He wants me to let go of “my life will be more full when…” and say “thanks for making my life completely full now.” To believe Colossians 2:10 that “in Christ, you have been brought to fullness.”

I don’t think anyone actually arrives at someday…for more than a little while at least. There’s always the next thing. In Him, we have true rest and satisfaction. Jesus is not barely enough. He is more than enough! “Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty (John 6:35), You give them drink from your river of delights. For with you is the fountain of life (Psalms 36:8-9).”

And what if someday’s table could be someone’s today? And so it is! Lincoln Village Ministries (an awesome ministry in Huntsville, http://www.lincolnvillageministry.com/) will be using the table in their new community center. For women to come together, read the word and enjoy fellowship and a meal. And please know, I share this, not to boast in any way…this is so tiny on the scale of how we could leverage our resources for the Kingdom…and we can never earn more favor with God than we already have in Christ…the desire is to boast in the Lord and share how Jesus has touched our hearts and opened our eyes to what’s right in front of us. And now, what’s right in front of us is…colorful bean bag chairs, a white board for drawing and teaching, kids art, handprints, Scripture cards, open space, children running, riding cards, singing songs, and laughing with freedom to be messy and love big. No more holding my breath! Wide open space!!! “He brought me out into a spacious place; he rescued me because he delighted in me” (Psalm 18:19).

Jesus says, “I am the bread of life” (John 6:35). I love dining room tables. I don’t think there is one bad thing about them and gathering with family and friends to share a meal is what life is all about. Dining rooms are awesome and fine dining with loved ones is a special blessing! But, I do believe God sometimes challenges us…in that room in the center…the center of your heart and mind that directs all the traffic…you have to make a choice. There isn’t room to do it the way the world says and the way He says.

And there’s a freedom in letting Jesus be the bread of life…of making him the feast…of letting go of someday and grabbing onto this moment…of trusting that He who has provided today will also provide tomorrow…of knowing that you are beyond blessed so you can freely give and overflow…of realizing what you need to live the life He has called you to live and what you can let go of to make room for Him today. And when we let go of the pretty things of this world and grab onto His beauty, His words, His way with both hands…there is TRUE JOY!

“And my God will meet all of your needs according to the riches of his glory in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 4:19). 

“Therefore, do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself” (Matthew 6:34). 

“I have come that they may have life and have it to the full” (John 10:10).

“He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all–how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?” (Romans 8:32)

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