For those of you who know me and my wife well we are at the tail end of a crazy year-long house building project. My wife is an architect so naturally she drew the plans for the house, picked the perfect lot, and has had her hands in it since the beginning. Her father loves building and had built most of the houses they lived in so, who else but my father-in-law to be our builder! My dad has been able to get his hand durty as well and it has been a stressful but fulfilling ride.
That's not entirely true from my perspective. To be honest, it has been one of the hardest years of my marriage and professional career. See, when I say we built this house I mean... physically. So not only was I working my full time job but I also was trying to help where I could. I am a personal trainer and leave my house around 5am each morning and do not make it home until 600pm most nights. This didn't leave much time for me to help with the project. I literally turned into a weekend warrior.
Perspective 1: "I should be doing more. I should be able to not sleep and just get things done. There shouldn't be any problem with working all day and having time to do some small work on this new house. After all, I am all about hard work and toughness. This won't be a problem."
Well that perspective didn't take long to disprove. I burned out quickly and it made a stressful situation worse. Not only did I feel guilty for not being able to help more but I was exhausted when I could help. This made tensions run high. Although working hard and losing some sleep now and then for a good cause isn't bad its not sustainable.
Perspective 2: "I am working hard on what I need to be and I am succeeding. Although I wish I could do more I accept that I am where I need to be. I will help when and where I can."
This perspective was what I wanted to achieve, and attempted to as time passes but I never quite achieved it. My ego took a hot when I wasn't able to live up to my unrealistic expectations and I became angry and bitter. It is hard to accept a humble perspective when being poked by a damaged ego.
How often do we allow the wrong perspective rule in our spiritual lives?
Guys I can tell you from experience that you cannot be all things to all people. It is impossible to "do it all." However, we set these expectations for ourseleves that are higher then we can reach. Study the Bible everyday, be peaceful and Christ like at all times as to set a good example for our wives and children, be good stuards, lead at church or in our community, be popular with everyone at church and remember all thier names, witness at work to your coworkers...and of course this is just a sample of what we define as a typical week in the life of a Christian man.
Too often we allow ourselves to take on the first perspective of beating ourseleves up for falling short. We tell ourselves we are not worthy and that we are failures. What a tragedy that we allow our egos to cloud our journey.
"I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength." Philipians 4:13
This verse can be used for both perspectives, but only the second perspective ends in peace of mind.
It is my prayer that as you all approach the challenges of your daily lives that you are able to cast your cares on God so that your perspective can be peaceful, strong, humble, and that of a man unafraid of what is before him.