chapters vs. sentences
For the last year or so I’ve been sensing transition - the closing of one chapter and the opening of a new one. Over the past few weeks, with my adult children preparing to launch in various ways, change has seemed even more imminent.
Which is kind of exciting and also kinda scary.
Because I can’t read ahead and know if I’m going to like what comes next. Not to mention, it’s hard to prepare - mentally or otherwise - for a future I can’t yet see.
Recently I was sitting in my morning chair, journaling my usual laundry-list of questions in this season…
When are we supposed to list the house?
Where will we go?
What should I be doing right now with the voice you gave me?
And then I stopped to listen - literally turned my journal from portrait to landscape to signal to my brain the shift in posture. And this is what I heard Jesus say:
“You’re always looking for the next CHAPTER. All I’m asking is that you live in the next SENTENCE.”
Did you catch that?
Not even “paragraph”.
SENTENCE.
Immediately I felt relief. Because if it’s actually OK to live one sentence at a time, there’s a lot less pressure to figure out - much less achieve - my future.
If you think about it, chapters can only be understood in hindsight.
Which means as long as we’re trying to understand - or PLAN - our lives in the context of chapters, we can’t be fully present in the sentences we’re living in.
Not that it’s wrong to dream about or even plan for the future. But if we’re too focused on what’s next, we’ll miss what’s right in front of us. And it will be hard to shoulder the pressure and/or disappointment of unmet expectations along the way.
Which can negatively affect how we live our future sentences, and thus the future chapters they will form…
If you had to put where you’re at right now into a sentence, what would it be?
Reading this email and pondering what it means for my life.
Ha. But true, yes? If you’ve read this far, that’s literally the sentence you’re living at this very moment. Maybe not the ‘pondering’ part. But hopefully so.
The next one might be…
Stepping into a meeting.
Cleaning the house.
Driving the kids to a playdate.
Having a good cry.
Texting a friend.
Making art.
Having a difficult conversation…
Finally, don’t wait for chapters to look for Jesus; he’s present in the sentences too.
It can be tempting to check-in with Jesus only about the “big” things in our lives, but it’s a lot easier to see evidence of him when you narrow the scope to your present reality.
One day, hour, minute - and sentence - at a time..
For TRUTH…
- cr
