We Serve A Great God

"For I know the plans I have for you," declares the Lord, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future."  --Jeremiah 29:11

Today's devotion suggested that perhaps I had experienced adversity or trials in my past or had more than my fair share of setbacks and heartaches.  It also suggested that it is time to break out of the "barely get by" mentality and become the best you can be, not merely average or ordinary.  This got me thinking.

Quite the contrary, I feel like my life has been pretty blessed.  Have there been trials?  Of course, watching my mother deal with her strokes last year was heart wrenching to say the least and the idea of losing her was torture.  Have their been heartaches?  I can definitely think of one in particular that took two years to recover from but have I had more trials or adversity than anyone else?  Definitely not.  I am amazed by the strength some of my friends show me on a daily basis who are going through things much worse than I could imagine.

I laughingly say that I am a "recovering perfectionist".  "Barely getting by" hasn't been a part of my vocabulary except for the few battles I have had with depression.  Maybe it was cocky to think that I wasn't ever average or ordinary.  What has changed though is that I don't feel like I'm putting that to the purpose I should be.  If I take something on, it gets 100% of my effort.  Sometimes that makes it difficult to focus on more than one thing at a time.  But ultimately, what fulfillment do I get from it?  Maybe it's time to start thinking about the things I do that give me the most fulfillment and focus on those and get rid of some others.  Or maybe it's time to find something new to put my efforts behind.

I hope that through this effort I get some insight into why I'm here and what God has planned for me.  Hopefully, I haven't been looking in the wrong places so far!