“One fine day, you’ll look at me
And you will know our love was meant to be
One fine day, you’re gonna want me for your girl”
OK, that song was not on the agenda for this post. But as I was typing the title, the song just started singing in my head, so I’m running with it. I’ll share with you, this time, one of the tangled up tangents that so often take my brain for a loop-da-loop. I wonder how often my husband gets motion sickness when I take him along on this crazy, fun ride that is my brain. (Sorry, Babe!)
I like to post my blogs on Mondays, because the writing helps me move forward that week with my focus on what the Lord has been putting on my heart. However, today is Tuesday. I was very intentional waiting for today to write, because I’m a numbers-person. And today is 22222, two-twenty-two-twenty-two, 2.22.22. Don’t you just love dates that have fun number patterns?! Or is that just me, the math nerd?
Just me… got it… moving right along, then.
One Day.
I’ve been praying for the Lord to direct this writing, trusting that since His words are the words I want to share, He will put them on my heart. My thoughts, as you’ve already witnessed, can be all over the place. Sometimes, that makes it hard for me to focus on the right-now, the thing I should be doing, and that makes me feel so forgetful and distracted.
You’ve heard of fight, flight or freeze, right? Well I’m the third. Anytime my brain gets overwhelmed, my instinct is to freeze and sometimes even hide. Some days I go as far as retreating to the dark, hidden place under my covers. (But that usually only lasts for about 30 seconds, because then I can’t breathe.)
When I’m stuck in that spot of overwhelming anxiety, it’s hard for me to move forward in anything, because I don’t know which one of a hundred things I should start. And then a second wave of overwhelm hits me as I imagine the overall project that has to get done. I worry about the time frame I have to accomplish everything, and all my other responsibilities included, and then I just get stuck.
But that’s when God so graciously plays two specific soundtracks in my head. Two of my favorites that are so applicable in these moments…
“Just keep swimming, just keep swimming, just keep swimming, swimming, swimming.” Dory can’t remember anything, often how I feel, but she doesn’t give up. She just keeps swimming. So as I begin to sing the lyrics out loud my brain translates the instruction to put one foot in front of the other. One step at a time.
Then, I see Anna climbing out of the cave, in her grief that has a gravity pulling her down. “Take a step, step again. It is all that I can, to do the next right thing. I won’t look too far ahead, it’s too much for me to take. But break it down to this next breath, this next step, this next choice is one that I can make…”
These times of taking another step, even when I don’t think I can, become reminders of God’s faithfulness to me. With every choice to take one more step, when I just do one more thing in this moment to move forward, I eventually find myself functioning again in the rhythm and flow of my routine. Thank you, Jesus!
Recently I found myself praying for a friend who is in a season of extreme loss and grief. I imagined her thoughts of, “I can’t do this forever.” I’m sure we’ve all thought that at some point in life. “I can’t do ________ forever.” Fill in the blank. And as I was praying for her protection, endurance, comfort and peace, the Lord put those two words in my mind.
“One day.”
We don’t have to do anything forever. We just have today. One day. And when it comes down to it, we only have this moment.
“You will keep in perfect peace those whose minds are steadfast, because they trust in you.” Isaiah 26:3
When I’m frazzled, and stuck, I come back to this verse. By reciting it over and over in my head, I’m able to keep my mind steadfast on the Truth, leaving no room for my anxious thoughts.
I put my thoughts on God, and the overwhelm disappears. I can see the next step in front of me to keep moving forward in this moment. I focus my intentions on the simple act of taking one more step, picking up one more dirty sock, sweeping one room of the house… doing the little things gets the big things done.
I’m not the big dreamer, extravagant planner, ten-year-goal setter. I’m the intricate details, tedious specifics kind of person. And I think that perspective can be really helpful when we find ourselves stuck in the overwhelming long term, big picture.
No, I can’t manage a rowdy home with never-ending chores, on four hours of sleep every night, with a screaming baby who won’t let me put him down, while remaining calm and kind to my big kids as they’re screaming and whining and leaving their dirty socks all over the living room… forever.
The good news is that I don’t have to. I just need to live this one day, responding in this one moment to pick up that one book that was left off the shelf, then that one blankey left on the couch. That’s how God keeps my mind in perfect peace, one moment at a time.
That… and Disney musicals.
