Working with What We Have

What if this was as good as things got?

The thought occurred to me yesterday as I was going about the conduct of one aspect of my job, thinking about ways to resolve systemic failure issues. I realized that one of my underlying assumptions is that at some point, new resources would become available to expand the systems in place. Suddenly I realized that this was an assumption that I was making - that I had, in fact, always been making: that things are inevitably always on a path up.

But what if they are not? What if this was truly as good as things got?

What if this was job were the only job I have for the rest of my life (I assume and strive for others)? What if the house we rent became our only house (I assume and strive that we will buy one day)? What if my time, talents, and treasures never grow more than they do today, and the resulting time and effort I have for my family never expands beyond what it is?

Does any of this (truly) change my relationship with God or my effectiveness for Him?

The truth is, I (and perhaps many others) have believed that our path in life is on an arc upward, always improving and moving forward, and perhaps in some benevolently sinister way we have come to believe that this is both an indicator of God's pleasure as well as that things will constantly get better for us personally. The reality is, we tend to confuse these circumstances of life with it's reality.

The reality is, as Phil Vischer says quoting Henry Blackaby, that he who has God plus everything does not have more than he who has God alone.

Which is why I need to take a fresh look at things, not towards some day of change or improvement which may never come but in the light of the concept that what is now is what may always be. Given that, and given that those circumstances are no indicator of what I have or do not have through God, what am I doing to live out His will in my daily life - not with what I would like to have or hope to have, but with what I do?