Post By: Angela Parlin
I couldn’t wait for my life to begin.
I crossed off another day on the calendar. Soon I would load up my Chevy Cavalier and move into my first, tiny, post-college apartment. I’d purchase my own food each day. I’d wear Business Casual Monday through Friday, and pull an IBM lanyard around my neck each morning. I’d sit poolside on weekends, reading all the fabulous novels I never had time for while in school.
There were so many things to look forward to when we were young. We took a step, turned a year older, completed a milestone, and then we looked ahead to the next great thing.
Double digits.
Being a teenager.
Earning a driver’s license.
Living on our own.
Childhood dreams were made of these things.
It was the same through college, where we checked off one step at a time, eyes always fixed on the next great season.
Before I knew it, I was learning the ropes of the corporate world and counting down the days until my wedding. After that, we looked forward to this trip or that and hoped for a baby and added to our family and survived multiple toddlers at once, and we continued to build.
My whole life I’ve been climbing, building, and looking ahead to the next great thing.
Sometimes now, I find myself looking back. I long for the good old days.
They passed far too quickly, if you ask me now. I wouldn’t have said that then, but I was clueless. I often failed to realize so much hidden beauty between the chaos. We don’t know what we have until it’s gone, after all.
We are prone to wanting what we don’t have, what we hope to have, what we used to have.
We look ahead, hoping for an ideal, assuming the next season will be something better. We want the current hard stage to pass. But then a new season arrives, and with it, new difficulties we didn’t plan. So we look back and long for old comforts.
At least, I do.
We find something similar in Hebrews 7, where some newer believers were longing for the not-so-good old days.
They were suffering persecution, and many of them wanted to return to the law, to Judaism. Then they would be part of the crowd again. When life got tough, they lost sight of the Better Hope they’d been given.
They lost sight of Jesus and His amazing benefits.
For the law made nothing perfect, and a Better Hope is introduced, by which we draw near to God. Hebrews 7:19
We could talk for hours about the Law, but we probably wouldn’t want to. What I mean is, it’s hard for us to understand all the implications of living under the law as opposed to living under the grace and mercy of Jesus Christ. But the difference was everything. Jesus still makes every bit of difference in our daily lives.
Because of Jesus, we have this amazing privilege–to draw near to God.
Under the law, worshipers had to stand out in the courtyard while the high priest represented them before God. They also had to fulfill so many regulations.
We have a full-access pass to the Throne of Grace. He makes His home within us. Maybe we’ve lost sight of this gift?
We know our greatest good will never truly be found in the next great season or another chance or a smoother road. That’s because our greatest good will always be found in drawing near to the Lord Jesus.
What if we exchange all our longing, for building into and climbing toward and waiting on a place where “real” life really begins?
We’ll be looking forward to the next great season, after all.
Angela Parlin is a wife and mom to 3 rowdy boys and 1 sweet girl. In addition to spending time with friends and family, she loves to read and write, spend days at the beach, watch romantic comedies, and organize closets. But most of all, she loves Jesus and writes to call attention to the beauty of life in Christ, even when that life collaborates with chaos. Join her at www.angelaparlin.com, So Much Beauty In All This Chaos.
