God, my shepherd! I don’t need a thing. Psalm 23:1 (TM)
Like most of us, I’ve been assimilating all the new "stuff" I received for Christmas this year. It’s all great and I’m grateful for how blessed I really am. It’s struck me, however, that life is filled with stuff. We get more stuff so we have to make room for it amidst all the old stuff. It takes energy, time, space and resources to house, maintain, and store all our stuff.
Holy Spirit has been speaking quietly to my heart over recent weeks about contentment, and the first verse of the familiar 23rd psalm hit me squarely this morning. I really don’t need a thing. As I look forward to a new year and consider what I want it to be, I believe that contentment is an area in which I wish to grow. I want to learn to control my insatiable wants. I want to learn to rest more in the green pastures of having all that I need.
Good old faithful Psalm 23. After a couple of weeks of refreshing R and R, this Psalm reads differently to me than usual. Normally I think of this Psalm as a comfort in times of trial, but today it reminds me of the down time we need to be the best worker, father, husband, friend that we can be. I feel prepared to go to work today unlike the past few months. I am reminded once again how we as Americans go, go, go and forget to quiet ourselves (physically or to listen to God). As we prepare our time off for 2008, let us be reminded of that.