Stick Around and Start Seeing
Sometimes words just grip you. They hop off the page of whatever you’re reading, etch themselves on your heart and mind, and begin cultivating new life as you ponder them. That was the effect after I read this sentence, “Stick around and start seeing the goodness of God.” Not even a 10-word sentence and its punch is powerful with a vivid picture morphing as you digest them.
As I write this, the window in front of me looks over the pond and the sunshine is casting beautiful shimmers as the wind moves the water. Like stars shining in broad daylight is how the water looks- simply beautiful and so peaceful. Big blue sky with puffy white clouds and the subtle sound of wind and nature’s natural rhythm fills the quiet as my child naps. Do you see it? Can you hear it? Pure goodness. If I hung the to-do list over my head (per usual for a mom) I would have missed it- not today. Today, I stuck around and saw.
If there is one thing I know, life wants to move fast. Just about everything in this world wants to move quickly and take you right along with it. Raising kids? Goes too fast. That’s what everyone says. Amazon prime? Overnight delivery. Good for those impulse buys of things the internet tells you you must have. Schedules? Whew. Is it the weekend yet? What’s next? Do we have a day with nothing scheduled? How much can we get done from the list we created when we were stressed and said we would do when we had time? When will we not be in this phase of parenting anymore? That lunch date you planned weeks ago, yeah it’s in a couple days. I’m out of breath! Life moves fast and seems to be getting faster; we seem to be running at a pace we didn’t intentionally set. You feel like life has a grip on you instead of you having a grip on life. This isn’t a time management blog. This is a stick around and start seeing blog.
“Stick around where, what, with whom, why?” Simple. Where are you? What are you doing? Who’s with you? Take a look around. Take it in. For a moment, allow yourself to be fully there: mind, body, soul. Hear me on this next part. What is God showing you? Is it joy on a co-workers face nearby as they receive affirmation from a superior? Do you hear laughter from children playing in the next room? Do you see gorgeous weather pouring through windows filling your space with light, calm, and grace? Let’s keep going. Do you see friends who are an answered prayer? A family you can’t believe is yours? A job you’ve had favor in when you didn’t deserve it?
Stick around and start seeing the goodness of God.
Introspective, you say? Intentional, actually. Pointless, you say? No, fulfilling. Waste of time, you’re busy? Time well spent I counter. Stick around what God has graciously given you and see it for all its worth. Stick around mentally not just physically and find contentment again in what you used to thank God for. Stick around spiritually and let God breathe on what’s felt stale. Think of your favorite chips in the pantry. Now, imagine your spouse left the chip clip off and now they’ve gone bad! (Yes, this is a real example in the Elsner home.) Disappointment sets in and even a little resentment. Foods we love grow stale before they spoil if we don’t care for them appropriately. Seasons we’re in can have the same effect if we don’t care for them appropriately- a risk many take though it was never their plan. How do you know if your season is growing stale?
If you’ve allowed me this far into your world, I dare to trek a little further in hopes of sharing some much needed perspective. Something I wish I had known years ago, honestly. The good and glimmering seasons are a little easier to see the goodness of God yet I still don’t know how intentional we are with being fully in them. For us high-achieving, high-responsbility people, we can quickly end these seasons as we impose the self-inflicted need to ask “what’s next God?” We think, “Ok that’s enough, let’s get to the next thing!” as if there is a time limit on our good seasons. Our God is outside of time! He is not hurrying you to experience the highest amount of joy because the ride is about to end and who even knows when it will be your turn again for a “good” season. Practically speaking, I wish I knew how to savor the good seasons and live fully in them; take in as much of God as I could and embrace the joys for as long as humanly possible. What I would tell me back then and you now is simple: Stick around your good season. There isn’t a clock ticking towards midnight where your season will turn back into a proverbial pumpkin. Alternatively, there is more of God, your awareness of Him, and the closeness you can share- this can turn your good season into a profoundly great season. Let’s be real, these seasons aren’t as rare as unicorns, but they’re in the ballpark.
Hard seasons are defined differently for all of us. It’s hard and honestly not fair to compare my hard season to yours. Even still, I stand by my initial banner, “Stick around and start seeing the goodness of God.” If time travel was a thing, I’d go back almost 3 years ago, hold my hands and tell myself those words. I was depressed from a traumatic pregnancy and on my second round of bedrest for new reasons; never so badly did I want to escape a season and get to the other side. Just like when things are good and we’re excited for what’s next and want to be there already with our new fire and passion, when we are in a difficult and draining season, we also look for the escape hatch and would jump without hesitation if it meant we didn’t have to be there anymore. What on earth would posses me to go back and tell myself to stick around and start seeing the goodness of God in that season? Think about it. If there was a way to pry my eyes, attention, and effort off how incredibly disappointed, lonely, isolated, and fearful I was, don’t you know how different that season could have gone? How different I might have been? This isn’t a should’ve, would’ve, could’ve, sobfest. This is me saying, even in the heavy darkness that can sometimes come without our permission making chapters in our life ones we don’t like to talk about, there is a Light we can look to in a fresh and unique way. What could have changed for you if in the dark season you walked through or are in currently you raised your head long enough to ask God, “Where is your goodness today?” Jeremiah tells us, “The more we look for God, the more we find Him.” I was definitely looking for God in that dark time, but it was through the lense of my disappointment, not through His goodness. Recently, this principle was solidifed in me in a new way with the help of A.W. Tozer.
“Like the eye which sees everything in front of it and never sees itself, faith is occupied with the Object upon which it rests and pays no attention to itself at all. While we are looking at God we do not see ourselves- blessed riddance.” [The Pursuit of God]
He is who and what is Good. Looking at Him, to see Him for the sake of seeing Him, is…. everything. Looking at our current lowly state will not give us life. Looking at the disappointments and dissatisfaction will not spur us on. We must stick around and start seeing differently.
How do we stick around? We live fully and presently; gone are the days of hurrying your seasons away. How do we start seeing? By turning your inner and outer eyes to God to see Him more today than yesterday so you can love Him more today than yesterday. When we do this, the pace of our life is now intentional instead of a runaway train. When we embrace these life-giving words, our lives begin to reflect them to a hurried world around you. So, go ahead. Give it a try. What goodness is God showing you today?
