Maybe a Midlife Crisis? Or Maybe My Life Right-Side Up!

I'm in my midlife...I hope anyway...it depends on if I live to be 92! What has my 46 years of life taught me? Many things...on my mind today is that there are those who think a lot and those who do a lot and there is rarely time for a lot of both. Also, no matter what you "do", a thinker is going to tell you that you are either doing it wrong or shouldn't be doing it at all. The worst part? I have been that thinker!  


I've done more than my share of thinking in my life, working hard to make the "simple", "complicated." I've shared, debated, and defended. Sometimes I was right and sometimes I was wrong. 


Either way, I am at least smart enough to notice that my time on earth is daily drawing shorter. Here's what you figure out "when you get to be my age": life is short and it's time to stop thinking so much and get doing... Pray, read the Bible, and do what it says. Simple. When God calls, say "yes." When the Bible says "do", do. Don't let your own thinking talk you out of obedience. And don't read or listen to too many other thinkers. 


I used to think that God had called me to everything that "thinkers" think is wrong:
~Being a stay-at-home mom. (Am I lazy?)
~Teaching certain Bible Studies where I was the youngest woman .(Aren't the older suppose to teach the younger?)
~Homeschooling. (Am I over-sheltering? Keeping my kids from being salt and light?)
~Previously, children's ministry. (Isn't that the job of the parent? Shouldn't we teach the parents to teach the kids?)
~Youth Ministry. (Does that 2 hours per week isolate them from the life of the church?)
And now (enter drum roll if you don't know yet what is coming!)
~Adoption. (If we choose domestic then I am pretty sure someone will tell me the need is greater in other countries. If we choose international adoption someone is going to remind me of how many orphans are in America and that I should adopt them first.)
~Feeding the hungry. (Shouldn't you teach them to work?)


I could go on. The funny thing? If you made a different choice than some of the ones I made I bet different thinkers told you that you were making the wrong choice too right? 


So here's where I have decided to land...I am putting down my "over thinking it" cap. I am picking up the "God said to do it so I am going to do it before the thinkers talk me out of it" cap. I've got no ax to grind, no chip on my shoulder. I just don't have time so I am laying it down.


Please don't take offense, but when the Bible says "make disciples" I am going to try to make disciples of the humans in front of me, whether they are 2 years old, 12, 22, or 102! When the Bible says, "feed the poor", I am just going to feed them. When the Bible says, "take care of the orphans and widows" I am going to pray for those opportunities and do it. 


Thinking's great but not if it stops me or anyone else from obeying what is in the Bible. I suppose it is good to mull it all over and write those blog posts and books and articles (like I am doing now, ironically). 


But I guess I needed to say in a public way (for accountability) and to myself, "Enough already!" I've got to much to do. 


"Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says." James 1:22