The suffocation of the laundry pile. The pressure between my ribs. Dirty shoes on the carpet.
Breath, I tell myself. Exhale. Inhale.
Peas in the hair. The pressure, the overwhelm. The never-ending. The dark encroaching jungle of dirt and din.
I disappear into a bathroom to scrub a toilet and children run up and down the halls yelling.
It’s too much. I give up! I’ll never be able to beat it back.
Giving up, Curling up. Nap isn’t an option with all the noise.
Kid’s movie.
Block it out. Ignore it.
More laundry at the end of the couch.
Like fertilizer for weeds this trying to shut it all out is.
The jungle encroaches. It’s sins domain.
Death, destruction, survival.
The buying of the food, the cooking of the food, the eating, dish washing, and working for the food.
“Cursed is the ground because of you; in toil you will eat of it all the days of your life. By the sweat of your face you will eat bread.” Genesis 3:17, 18
Survival – it’s part of the garden curse.
The daily grind, the upkeep, the tending, and cleaning, the fight for order so that real life – the good life, can happen.
That’s the curse.
It’s not just you. We ARE losing out. It’s a fight to get through the mundane, in order to focus on what matters, God, our family, friends.
Real life, the good life.
This is what was lost in the garden. We traded relationships for survival.
We lost life.
Death entered.
God had to promise a seed that would one day make it all right.
Survival didn’t exist. Relationships did. God walking with man did. Perfect spousal unity did. Glorious, unashamed nakedness did.
So now what? There’s no putting the lid back on sin’s curse.
Now, we run. We run to our savior, the one who fulfilled His promise to crush Satan’s head. The one who’s guaranteed our future.
And we fight.
We fight the encroaching jungle of disorder, and we do what we can to get back to garden relationships.
We minimize. We get rid of stuff so there’s less things to wear out, break down, and maintain. We eat simply, we plan ahead.
This is curse busting stuff!
We let some things go, because this world, it’s all headed toward death and decay, but people, our loved ones, relationships they don’t have to be. There is a savior for them, for us. There IS REAL LIFE and, in the midst of the curse, God has made a way.
So, dear friend, don’t become weary in well doing. This side of heaven we will always fight survival mode, but we can recognize it for what it is, and not become discouraged when yet something else encroaches on what really matters because that is what this curse does. So fight for your relationship with God, and with others, because at the end of this life, that is what will matter.
Two of my favorite resource to help you fight survival mode are this book, and this short, 15 minute a day course for mornings or the one for evenings. Keep at it my friend!
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