We’re used to earning things.

If we study hard we earn good grades.
If we have a job we earn money.
If we keep our word we earn respect.

Since this mentality-of-earning is so deeply engrained in our brains we can also start to think that we can only experience God’s blessings if we earn them.

And then throw a global pandemic into the mix. You’re not at your best. You’re probably tired—perhaps physically, definitely mentally. You feel like you’re letting people down, including yourself.

But what if in these tiring and taxing times we were being invited to learn something? That God is sufficient. That God is at work even when you’re shaky. And that not as much stuff depends on you as you think.

Recently a colleague sent me a quote from Abraham Joshua Heschel: “Just to be is a blessing; just to live is holy.”

Ah, yes. Being. Living. We haven’t earned these gifts; we’ve received them. 

Psalm 118:8 says, “It is better to take refuge in the LORD than to trust in humans.”

Including you.

What if in these tiring and taxing times we were being invited to learn something? That God is sufficient. That God is at work even when you’re shaky. And that not as much stuff depends on you as you think.

“Just to be is a blessing; just to live is holy.”

By Matthew Ruttan 

–Bible quotes are from the NIV.