ARE WE TOO CONTENT INSIDE OUR COCOONS?

ARE WE TOO CONTENT INSIDE OUR COCOONS?
Tuesday, January 30, 2024 by Linda Wood Rondeau

Categories: devotional / TUESDAY'S TREASURE

For I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work among you will complete it by the day of Christ Jesus.

Philippians 1:6

I had to move into my new home before the finishing touches could be completed. Doing renovations while still living in a home, one must adjust to the less desirable. Reconstruction takes energy … energy that becomes depleted with the demands of everyday life. I had a book launch to prepare for, and deadlines were looming. The mundane took precedence over the permanent.

My neighbor was ultra-solicitous on my behalf. I was used to a small town with little crime and tended to be perhaps too trusting of my street and a city of a million people. She told me I needed to keep my windows covered. Since I was living alone until my husband could join me, she lectured me on basic safety.

As a temporary measure, I hung up sheets for window curtains until I could figure out what to do next. However, the longer I postponed making improvements, the more content I became with the ugliness I’d created. “Good enough,” I told myself. “I achieved the necessary—the windows are covered. I don’t have the time or inclination right now to be creative.”

My sister-in-law had a vision for my new home and volunteered to be my interior design consultant. For her, the status quo I endured was unacceptable. She lavished me with home gifts sure to inspire the dormant decorator within. I soon wearied from the experimentation. “Nope, this doesn’t work,” she’d say, then take the decoration down and return in a few days with a new concept.

I thought I’d scream if I had to do one more project.

When she brought in a third set of patio drapes, I drooped in pain. Not again! Hadn’t I made enough adjustments? What was already there seemed sufficient. Why go through more hassle?

“Just try them,” she urged.

Then I remembered:

She had asked me to do this out of love.
Her knowledge of interior design far exceeded mine.
She was confident the improvement would bring me great joy.

I mustered the will and hung the drapes. When I viewed the results, I wept in thanksgiving. The rich chocolate color pulled the room together in purpose and design. What joy! What beauty! More than I could ever have imagined—undeserved comfort in my moments of solitude. Pleasure I would have missed had I not let go of the status quo.

I wonder if we, God’s beloved children, approach our spiritual growth with the same disinterest.

He has lavished us with his love. He does not withhold any good thing from his child. He has a vision for our lives, and what he sees is best for us. How happy we could be if we would allow him to complete what he has begun. How sad when we hang on to the dingy coverings hanging over our lives when God stands ready to dress us in clothes of righteousness.

Perhaps we resist change because we fear a process of renewal will be painful or too disruptive to our daily routine. We become absorbed by the mundane to the point that we no longer expect or desire God’s infilling. He wants to make us butterflies, but we’re content to stay in our cocoons.

We do wise to remember:

God loves us.

The Lord appeared to him long ago, saying

I have loved you with an everlasting love;

Therefore I have drawn you out with kindness.

Jeremiah 31:3

He knows us better than we know ourselves.

For You created my innermost parts;
You wove me in my mother’s womb.

Psalm 139:13

His design for our lives is more than we could ever hope or dream.

Now to Him who is able to do far more abundantly

beyond all that we ask or think,

according to the power that works within us.

Ephesians 3:20

PRAYER

Lord, you know my comings and goings before I am made aware. You know my physical and spiritual complexities. You know what is best for me. You desire a complete metamorphosis for me, but I am stubborn and stuck inside my cocoon of convenience and predictability. Shatter the web keeping me captive from experiencing your fullness. Bring me to your design and purpose for my life.

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