Look At Me
Right in the middle of my perfectly planned morning routine – it happened. My hair dryer quits cold turkey. Literally, my hair was whipping around in all directions when I noticed it was blowing cold air. Which, for your artic sister, is not a good thing! I don’t need help being cold, but I really needed my hair to be dry. I did everything possible to fix it: turn it off, and turn it back on, unplug it and plug it back in, even hitting it on the counter a few times. So, I called for my “fix all the things” husband. He, in all his genius, opened the cap on the back and proceeded to clean out the filter. Who thinks to do that, anyway? Ha! He started pulling out hair, fuzz, hair, dust, hair, and more hair. It was like a clown pulling out yards of multi-colored scarfs from a small can. After all of his hard work, the hair dryer was still blowing cold. My hair dryer had lost its capacity to heat. It had been so full of gunk for so long that it got burned out and forgot its purpose.
All this gunk got my mind blowing towards thoughts of all the gunk we suck into our lives. Causing us to lose power to function for our intended purpose. I know I’ve had times when I’ve been dragged down by the gunk of business, or even just mundane days. If you’re a stay at home mom, or even a working mom, there are days when it’s just hard to find the significance.
Does that mean we give up? No.
Does that mean we are useless? Absolutely not
Does that mean we’re not enough anymore for my intended purpose? Never.
In 2 Chronicles we meet a mature 25-year-old guy named Hezekiah. He was the new king of Judah at the time and handling things with great leadership skills. Immediately after his introduction in chapter 29 he gathers the Levites together to give them one of those mom-like “look at me” speeches. They had abandoned the temple and had stopped doing everything they had been set apart to do.
In verses 5 & 6 he tells them to, “Remove everything impure from the holy place. For our fathers were unfaithful and did what is evil in the sight of the Lord our God. They abandoned him, turned their faces away from the Lord’s dwelling place, and turned their backs on him.” Hezekiah was telling them to remove the gunk. They had been burned out and had given up on their intended purpose. But this was not who they were. They needed to be reminded what their purpose was, what God had called them to do, and that they had the capacity to do it!
I love how the Message Version speaks on this in verse 11, “Children don’t drag your feet in this! God has chosen you to take your place before him to serve in conducting and leading worship – this is your life work; make sure you do it and do it well.” 2 Chronicles 29:11 MSG
I know my boys have to be reminded several times when it comes to picking up their rooms. Rarely do they listen the first time, so I have to get right in front of them, make them look me in the eyes, so they hear and see my words of love and gentle (cough cough) correction. This is what Hezekiah was saying to the people in sorts, “Pick up your room! You are the ones who are called here. This doesn’t work without you.”
Like the people of Hezekiah’s time, we too need to be reminded to get out of our funk and clean out the gunk. No matter what season we are in right now, no matter if doing the laundry is your only accomplishment of the day, no matter how your kids are acting in this moment, no matter if you’re here when you really want to be there. Don’t forget who you are and that what you do is significant. When we lose sight of who we are, we halt the realization of our full potential, fear sets in and we never go all in. Don’t let gunk or fear tell you who you are, or what you can do. With words directed to Ezra in chapter 10:4, I can hear God’s voice telling us the same, Get up, for this matter is your responsibility, and we support you. Be strong and take action!
Never stop trying. Never stay down.