Live Large

“The smallness you feel comes from within you. Your lives aren’t small, but you’re living them in a small way. I’m speaking as plainly as I can and with great affection. Open up your lives. Live openly and expansively!” (2 Cor 6:12-13 MSG) 

Oh these words are like fresh air; like a window opened in my heart. It’s so easy to get weighed down by the small things, the little frustrations, and lose sight of the bigger picture. 

So much is up to our perspective. We are living into a great story with chapters so grand we can only imagine - yet somehow we can get hung up on the paragraphs - or even the less than ideal sentences that make them up. 

We’ve had a week like that around here. A week that seemed filled with set-backs and being forced to slow down. It felt like several things went wrong all at once. But the reality is so many more things went right. There were tangible graces dotting moments throughout each day that point to God’s provision and attentiveness. 

Sometimes being reminded of our own limitations is refreshing as it propels us further in the art of learning to receive help. I love helping others, but I’m not so good at sitting on the receiving end. This week I needed to receive help, it was uncomfortable but it was beautiful. I’m reminded of the goodness again and grateful in a fresh way for our awesome family and friends.

Love grows when we give. Love also grows when we receive. 

A hidden grace in a week like this is that it disrupts our typical rhythms of life. I think the pause brings with it a healthy opportunity to reflect and take inventory of how we’re stewarding our minutes. 

As an Enneagram 3 I can get so laser focused on any one task or goal that I easily lose perspective on the bigger picture. And this week, culminating with reading these words reminds me to look up and look out and remember anew the grandness we are all invited to live into with Christ. 

When we are feeling the squeeze of life, it’s often because we’ve forgotten this greater reality. So I’m thankful for this reminder to live openly and expansively. We only get one shot at today. Let’s live into the beauty and grandness we were made for.  You are most certainly and perfectly loved - live openly and expansively in that reality. Let’s do it well my friends and let’s do it together.