Over the course of my life, even before having become a Christian, I have felt subtle stirrings inside of my spirit. These stirrings would often leave me anxious, antsy, waiting, looking. Anxious about the future, antsy about the present, waiting for what's to come, and looking around every corner and under every rock for that "next step." What was I waiting and looking for you ask? I have never really had any idea! (Until today.) I just settled for knowing those feelings would pop up every so often, and faithfully, they have. Throughout almost my entire life.
I have specifically felt those stirrings within me, this year. I tried to describe this feeling to Mark and Anna, the wonderful people I live with, saying "It's like this. You are not even hungry, maybe you are, doesn't really matter, and you think, maybe I will make some veggies or salad when I get home later. Not really that much on your mind or urgent To DO list. But THEN, you drive by McDonald's and you SMELL McDonald's food. It stirs something inside of you that ten minutes ago wasn't even thinking about McDonald's. You drive down the road and you STILL want McDonald's. It's the essence of McDonald's lingering around your nose and taunting your taste buds with the memory of those hot french fries and yummy big mac. Sometimes you give in, turn around, and get you some of that yummyness! But more often than not, you keep driving. And eventually....the essence of McDonald's fades until you no longer even remember that you wanted it."
What a wacky way to try and describe those anxious moments in our lives where we feel in our spirit that there is something MORE out there. Sometimes, like with McDonald's, we can satisfy that urge. Spiritually maybe it is reading more in the word, adding another ministry to volunteer/work for, worshiping in the car, etc etc. But sometimes, it is (for lack of a better phrase) that itch we just can't seem to scratch! So what did God show me today? you might be wondering.... The reason (and a MUCH better way to describe it than the essence of McDonald's) found in Romans 8:20-25ish.
"Everything in creation is more or less held back. God reins it in until both creation and all the creatures are ready and can be released at the same moment into the glorious times ahead. Meanwhile, the joyful anticipation deepens. All around us we observe a pregnant creation. The difficult times of pain throughout the world are simply birth pangs. But it's not only AROUND us, it's WITHIN us. The Spirit of God is arousing us within, We're also feeling the birth pangs. These sterile and barren bodies of ours are yearning for full deliverance. That is why waiting does not diminish us, any more than waiting diminishes a pregnant mother. We are enlarged in the waiting. We, of course, don't see what is enlarging us. But the longer we wait, the larger we become, and the more joyful our expectancy." (The Message)
WOW! Now I get it! The reason we feel those urges and stirrings and anxiousness and antsy feelings is because we, like the rest of creation, are experiencing a type of labor pang. Mother's experience it while waiting the long 9months for a child to arrive. But then once the infant is here, it is pure joy! In life, we as Christians, should I believe, experience those same pangs (I know I do!) in order to be reminded not only that more awaits us, but to get excited at the joy of being reunited with our Heavenly Father!
This devotional and word of scripture could not have come at a better time in my life, literally down to the very morning I opened it, because just last night I was chatting with a young girl who has found herself in a very frustrated state of her life, unsure of where to go and what to do and desperately seeking a sign on which way to go in her life. I was that girl the past year. I experience the "labor pangs" spiritually as well as physically in my everyday life, knowing there was something more or different I was supposed to be doing but wasn't doing it. It was when I tapped into recognizing the voice of God from the voice of the world when all of that started to change for me. I became less obsessed with "figuring it all out" and more in tune with growing deeper and more intimate in Christ. And after a long agonizing year of praying about my calling, begging God to show me something in my life, seeking mentors to tell me why I am here, what I am to do.....I subtly stopped worrying about it, and started enjoying life more. Creating the avenue for myself to do the things God has gifted me in. I started trying to become the best version of myself for all relationships I was a part of. I really sought more to understand who God is so I could then understand His will for me.
And one day, driving down the road listening to talk radio, without a care in the world, I heard "You will be a wife and mother" WHAT? God, is that-and no sooner could I finish my thought in my own head, I was wrapped in a peace like I had never felt before. You see, I stopped obsessing about the things I need not worry about, and started focusing on the things that were important. You know how when you are single (which I am) and all of the married or settled women in your life try and be encouraging by saying "when you stop looking for your husband he will drop in your lap when you least expect it" (Well, I don't know if that is true of husbands because trust me I have done my fair share of waiting for one to drop in my lap!) But I DO think it is true spiritually. Because when I least expected it, yet in God's perfect timing, He assured me of what I was called to do. And sure, there are tons of things I am talented in and passionate about. But I know out of all of those I am to get right the being a wife and mother part :)
Back to the essence of McDonald's. If you as a Christian are experiencing that arousing feeling in your spirit where something more is out there and you are wanting a taste of that, as frustrating sometimes as it can be and as antsy as it makes your spirit, I am convinced that that is a GREAT thing for believers to feel. There is MUCH joy to come at the end of this life when we meet God face to face. And those labor pangs are reminding us that we, like all of creation, are waiting for that moment when God holds us in His arms and the waiting is over and replaced with pure JOY!
In Him,
Meg
