I’m unpacking in my spare time. Today I decided to tackle my jewelry. Despite my careful attempts to keep those delicate chains from getting themselves into knots, they did it anyway. I spent about 45 minutes trying to untangle them and still have two more to go. Needless to say, I was VERY frustrated: “Oh! I have a list of the other things I could be doing right now!” “I don’t even want all of these necklaces!” “See how material things waste my time!” My thoughts and I ping-ponged together throughout my wrestling match with the jewelry.

As the necklaces broke free, one by one, I felt such immense relief, though. I don’t even know how I managed to work all but two from their jumbled mess.  I suppose I focused on one chain at a time, shook the whole mess once or twice, changed my position on the floor a few times, and just kept working at it. I reluctantly put the remaining two aside to make lunch for myself and the kids, and as I did so, I thought about what I could glean from that exasperating experience. Overall, I figured there was little redeeming value in pulling apart necklaces when I could have been doing something much more meaningful with my kids.

However, my thoughts kept returning to how that pile of bling closely resembles…ME! In any given day I have so many emotions, thoughts, feelings, dilemmas, etc. that when I lie in bed at night, I feel like a jumbled mess. It is impossible for me to figure out whether I truly soaked in the life that was waiting to be lived that day.  The consistent desire of my heart is to live life to its maximum potential every single day, and that means being obedient to Christ in all He calls me to do. Unfortunately, despite my best efforts to keep my focus on Him, my own thoughts, emotions and desires begin to intertwine themselves together and…well…I’m left with a bunch of tangled necklaces.

The cool thing about all of this is that “He who has begun a good work in me” will be faithful to complete it. When all is said and done, Jesus persistently smooths out, works out and shines every bit of this messy creature called ME and loves me while doing so. That is a promise that I need to remember at the beginning and conclusion, and every moment in between, of every day that I live.

(I’ll try to be a bit more patient with those remaining two chains this time around.)