Can I Be Around Today?
The Chosen
Season 1, Episode 3
Our lifegroup has been such a beautiful, supportive and necessary part of our spiritual walk with Jesus. Each person in our group is precious to us and has walked closely with us through the good and the bad of life. They love us. They love Calla. They know the weight of grief...they share our burdens and we share theirs. And our lifegroup has been studying the life of Jesus through watching The Chosen and studying in the gospels.
It’s no secret how much Team Woods loves The Chosen tv series. We’ve watched each episode multiple times, and without fail, each time we are struck by something different and new. (If you want to watch this amazing show, the bandwagon welcomes you! It is free to watch through The Chosen app, available in any app store.)
Last night, our group watched Season 1, Episode 3...my favorite episode. We talked about the characters and the dialogue, the passages that inform the scenes and how to allow the message to inform our lives. And I’ve thought about this episode all morning today.
Since Calla’s rescue, I have had to pray myself out of bed every morning. The prospect of spending another day in painful separation from her is the very first thing my heart feels each day and I have to ask Jesus to pull me forward...out of bed and into life again. I ask for His Holy Spirit to live in me, for God to do His work and accomplish His purposes through me and in me. I ask for His help to face another day with its joys of being with my Ezra, Lilah and Benjamin and it’s heartache of being separated from my Calla. And then I make myself get up.
And this morning was the same again, but as I was getting ready, my mind started to replay a scene from The Chosen...the one where a precious 9(ish) year old girl, Abigail and several of her friends wake Jesus up by leaning over Him and asking, “Can we be around today?” And Jesus sleepily answers, “I suppose. But I have some work to do...you might have to help.”
I’ve been stirring over this scene all morning...thinking about how the choice to join Jesus in the work He has to do today is so much more about my desire to be in His presence than in the effectiveness and results of my work. Like Abigail sanding wooden spoons and another tiny little girl winding twine around a stick, the things I am “qualified” to do are pretty limited, but what matters is that I’m doing them in the presence of God Himself and He can and will use them.
If you’ve ever made cookies or built something with your kiddo, you know this concept well. We can measure flour and crack eggs, run a power drill and paint a wall much faster, cleaner and more effectively than our kiddo can. We most often get better results when we do it ourselves. But when your intent is focused on spending time with your child, results are not what really matter...it’s being together...it’s being present with each other that matters.
It’s the same with our Heavenly Father. He is not focused on the results we produce...He’s keyed in on being WITH us as we do the work He’s set before us. He’s concerned with our willingness to say yes to Him in each task He prepares for us, to recognize that life in His presence is the goal. He is able to bless the work we join Him in...He will use it, He won’t waste it. But our willingness to humbly ask Him, “Can I be around today?” is what really pleases Him.
Matthew 18:1-4 says “About that time the disciples came to Jesus and asked, “Who is the greatest in the kingdom of Heaven?” Jesus called a little child to him and put the child among them. Then he said, “I tell you the truth, unless you turn from your sins and become like little children, you will never get into the Kingdom of Heaven. So anyone who becomes as humble as this little child is the greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven.”
Oh, Jesus...how I need to be in Your presence today. I want to be around You...and I humbly offer myself to work with You. I will say “yes” to the things you put before me today...things you have prepared in advance for me to do. I know my results are not what matters to You, so I won’t base my value on what I can accomplish. I am valued because You love me and have welcomed me to come to you...to be around You. I trust that you won’t waste my willingness or my effort; that You will bless and establish the work of my hands to be used for Your purpose. Thank you for letting me soak up Your presence, Your Spirit. Thank you for letting me be around You again today.
#teamwoods #hopeingrief #discipleship #thebravewayhome #thechosen #thechosentvseries
