Turn Your Eyes

"And this One shall be peace." - Micah 5:5

My 6 year old granddaughter Pearl tried her best to teach this 58 year old woman how to play Roblox. Now I'm a technical person, a software developer for over 30 years, and I just can't get it. I tried hard, and I am still trying. YouTube videos will be my next guide.

I had some early morning thoughts this morning that were of value - and that's rare. I usually lay in bed making those long lists of everything that I've not gotten done, everything I need to do, and things I forgot. But this morning I was thinking of Roblox!

In so many ways a lot of these games are much like life. You work hard to get a certain thing - a new block, a garden, a house - my house is Pink, per Pearl's guidance in Roblox. But we spend time earning all these things, and truly so many of them just clutter our lives.

I think sometimes God has to turn our eyes away from the routine life we lead, and let us see His path for us. After driving in Maryland traffic for 5 days, thinking back, everyone was either driving to get something or driving somewhere to earn money to get something, or driving somewhere to enjoy something. Drive, drive, drive, drive. Maryland traffic is much like the Indy 500, but with unexpected exits - on the left and right. It's tiring, in fact completely exhausting. If there was ever a visual of "The Rat Race" that traffic was it for me.

Thinking this morning, God softly turned me back to what is important. It's not Roblox - it's Pearl and my relationship with her. It's not coloring - but my relationship with Millie. It's not spending time with my son and daughter-in-law going to a zoo (it was supposed to rain and we missed it), but spending time just talking, enjoying each other's personalities and thoughts and dreams.

Today I go back into the rat race. A race against time, with meetings an hour or half hour all day, 124 (exactly) emails begging my attention, and continual text messages.

So how do we survive the stress and honestly, dehumanization of our daily lives which make us more like a fidgety squirrel trying to reach a nut out of our realm? We turn our eyes, hearts, and minds to Jesus. He is our peace (Micah 5;5, Ephesians 2:14). And how do we do that? We take time to escape the race. We pull over for a coffee break, we take time to look outside at His beautiful creation, and praise Him for it. We push ourselves off the hamster wheel to become human again, with kindness to each other that's not seen or felt on a Maryland highway or any other.

I recall a weekend where I heard the phrase "If you don't know who you are, the world will tell you who you are." Stop letting it boss you around. Be who God made you. God bless you all as we re-enter the rat race. Let us keep our heads up, and look up.