The words of a song “Bohemian Rhapsody” from Queen, a rock band from the 70’s, in a weird way capsulizes a struggle I have had recently. The lyrics begin with:
Is this real life?
Is this just fantasy?
Caught in a land slide.
No escape from reality.
The month of May was renamed by a friend of mine as Mayhem and despite my best efforts to eliminate as much as possible, the month of May felt like it was just that, chaos, disorder and out of control.
Spring concerts, plays, and projects. Mother’s day and Graduation festivities…preschool, kindergarten, 5th grade, 8th grade, high school and college! Sprinkle in a visit from Grandma, a wedding, end of the year school parties and Memorial Day weekend to bring the pandemonium to a peak.
If you have kids, grandkids, nieces & nephews or involved with school aged kids, I am certain you can relate to the craziness of May along with the lyrics to the song and jump on the landslide, which for me felt more like a mudslide. In the midst of all the craziness of May an annoying question kept taunting me. Queen’s song is rather lengthy, complex and seems to have random concepts. However, the rhapsody lands on this conclusion:
Nothing really matters
Anyone can see
Nothing really matters – Nothing really matters to me….
Well things do matter to me, but does what I do really matter? The true annoying question. In my real life of over loaded coming and going and doing, I felt like I couldn’t get to what I really wanted to come and go and do, but yet the coming and going and doing I was coming and going and doing seemed to be important. Thus the question: Does anything I do really matter for you, God?
This question is a heavy one and it was weighing me down. I finally got a little longer time with God sometime around the first of June to wrestle with Him about this question. As I spilled my guts, whined a good bit and made sure I had completely filled God in on all my frustrations, I tried to be quiet and listen. After my rampage was complete and I had settled into quietness, the Spirit revealed to me how I was asking the wrong question.
Just a slight degree off, like that of a compass pointed toward the North Pole, can send us off in the completely wrong direction. My questions was off. The slight degree difference was actually a quite large one in destination estimation. GOD was at the end of my question and the emphasis was on what I did!
My question of “does what I do really matter?” actually included God in my thinking. It did consider the question of does what I do matter in God’s purposes for me – type of thing. The better question is more direct. It focuses on God and takes me out of the equation. The question is:
What really matters to You, God?
I don’t have it all figured out yet, but my compass has been reset on the right question. So, does anything really matter? YES! The question we ask matters. The focus of the question matters.
What matters to God over what I feel might matter. Taking a second look at the lyrics and tweaking them…
Does what I do really matter?
Is the wrong question, you see
Everything and anything really matters…If it matters to God, it matters to me!
What does really matter to God? Inviting Him to show us is the first step. The second is leaning into what matters to Him as it plays out in our everyday life. For me, being more present with my kids in fun frivolous moments now that they are out of school, writing a new bible study and finally writing this blog. In a few days it will be going on a mission trip to Honduras.
The slight shift in the question gives way to monumental outcomes. Shifting to a focus of what matters to God over whether I feel validated in doing things that matter, actually gives me the very validation I seek.
What really matters to God?
“He has told you, O mortal, what is good; and what does the LORD require of you, but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?” Micah 6:8
I missed your blogs. What we do does matter go God. The scary thing for me iswhen I do not represent God to people because of my lack of perfection. Each day is a new day and it is what God thinks that matters. Blessings on your trip.
Lots to ponder! So much of what fills our day, what gets us flustered, what seems of utmost importance really doesn’t matter in 2-3 days. Sadly,so much of our lives is wasted. Your question rephrased could change ones prospective on the day to day routine!
I am so thankful to see you blogging again. I have missed your writings. Strange that what you ponder at your stage I ponder at my stage. I guess that in and of itself speaks to the commonality we share through the holy spirit. I think you reframed the question correctly; what I do never had and never will matter. What matters to God is what is critical and presenting myself wholly incapable of even being able to conceive of what He has in mind leaves me no choice but to be obedient and to let him use me for his purpose. In doing this God brings things full circle and what I did/do ends up mattering.