So I just moved from Buffalo, NY to Phoenix, AZ! Amidst dodging the sun, getting lost just driving around the corner, and meeting more new people than hairs on my head, it’s been pretty hectic. I think it’s common when you move to a new place to start wondering things like where you’ll fit in and how others will see you. And that’s what I was thinking, as well as stressing about where I was going to find employment, and how I could make things work out just the way I wanted them too. A couple days of those thoughts and I realized that I was getting way too consumed with myself, even though those are legitimate things to think about. I took it to prayer and I found the answer was, for once, really simple!
St. Paul tells us in Romans 14:7-8 that “…if we live, we live for the Lord, and if we die, we die for the Lord; so then, whether we live or die, we are the Lord’s.” Simply put, we belong to God. What does that mean? My first reaction was to be slightly mad and think, “Wait a minute, I don’t want to be ‘owned’ by anyone!”
The truth is that God’s the one who created us in the first place. He made us to know, love, and serve him and to be in Heaven with him. He’s also the one who’s keeping us alive at every moment of every day. Then I guess we do sort of belong to Him and St. Paul knows what he’s talking about. After all, he did write practically half of the New Testament. Belonging to God doesn’t suffocate our freedom to do what we want, when we want, but instead provides the way out of the “me” bubble we tend to get stuck in.
The culture and economy pushes us to be self-centered and continually think about what we can do to make ourselves happy. The lies fed to us say possessions make you happy and that belonging to one clique or stereotype will fulfill you. It’s easy to fall into the trap of stressing about what’s going to happen next in our lives and how to make things work out perfectly. But that’s not up to us! All we have to do is realize whom we belong to and who’s really in control.
If we confidently grasp the truth that we belong to the King, it gives us freedom, joy, and most of all peace. When I came to the conclusion that all those worries were being worked out perfectly in the mind of God, it was like I could finally relax with a sigh of relief.
Now if I could just remember to put on sunscreen for the short walk out to my car.
