The Daily CHEW™
Moving God’s Love from Head to Heart for Christian Professionals
Last week, I watched my wife get hooded for her PhD in History. She began her Master’s after I started my PhD in Practical Theology — earned the Master’s, finished the doctorate, wrote the dissertation in under a year — and crossed the stage with honor while I am still not halfway through mine. I am proud of her in a way I do not have language for. I am also a man with more W’s than completed courses on his transcript, because every time the work got intense I dropped a class to protect the clients I had said yes to.
I long to finish. I long to write the book I have been carrying since I was a teenager reading Larry Crabb and realizing I wanted to spend my life working at the heart level. But at 57, I am learning something I should have learned earlier: the call is not bigger than the body God gave me to carry it. I have stopped sacrificing my health for the sake of getting more done. I have protected family time. Sunday is sacred Sabbath now and has quietly become my favorite day of the week. With the hours I do have, I am asking the Lord for wisdom on how to pursue the call in a way that stays in keeping with how He designed me — not the version of me I keep trying to outrun.
I do not have this figured out. There is still trial and error. Some assignments in my coursework arrive and I have to ask three people what the words even mean. But I trust Him. Ephesians 2:10 — “For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them” — is the verse I keep returning to. He prepared the work. He gave the call. I plan and steward; He directs the steps.
The thing sinking deeper in me this year is that God really does love me the way Scripture says He does — and the solidity that is growing inside is quite remarkable for a man who has fought anxiety all his life. I still get anxious. The fight is different now. I come back to trust faster.
Here is the question for this Friday: If I really believed God’s love has prepared the good works for me to walk in — and that He is more committed to the call than I am — how would that change the way I am stewarding the limits He has given me this week?
One move before the weekend: Name one limit you have been resenting — a body that cannot keep up, a schedule that will not stretch, a season that is not what you planned. Then say out loud: “He prepared good works for me to walk in inside this limit. I will steward it and trust Him to direct the steps.” If this is the only thing I do from this CHEW today, it is enough.
With you on the journey,
Ryan
If you had to put this into one sentence for today, what would you say God is inviting you to rest in or return to?
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