↩ Looking Back
Lately I’ve been thinking about how incredibly valuable it is to live well in uncertainty.
There’s always something we’re waiting on. Test results. A phone call. Money that's been promised. An answer you haven't gotten. A prayer that's remained unanswered.
And there’s also a spiritual layer: Am I going to trust God to come through?
Recently, our van was in the shop for five weeks. Some generous friends let us use their extra car in the meantime—but it only seated five, and there are seven of us. That meant no full-family trips.
A family getaway was coming up, and we really needed the van. I called the mechanic and he said, “We’ll do our best.”
Not exactly hope-inspiring.
I started looking for rentals. Backup options. Nothing worked.
That’s when I finally said to God, “Okay—I can’t solve this. So this one’s on You. Help me trust You.”
Long story short: we got the van back less than two hours before the shop closed for a week-long holiday. A single day before we had to leave.
God was cutting it awfully close—as He tends to do (which gives us an opportunity to flex our faith muscles).
In the waiting, I’m trying to ask:
- What can I control?
- What can only God control?
- And how do I want to live in the meantime—anxiously or expectantly?
↑ Looking Up
You know what a treadmill is. Maybe you've heard of the newer style of under-desk treadmills.
But have you heard of the hedonic treadmill?
The hedonic treadmill is a concept that says our happiness levels always normalize after some change (positive or negative)...
We’re constantly trying to satisfy our deepest longings, but we tend to reach for the low-hanging fruit instead of what will actually satisfy us. The things we are looking to for satisfaction are often stand-ins for deeper needs.
The real problem with the hedonic treadmill, no matter what era we’re living in? We try to make proximate things into ultimatethings.
👉 Read the full post and find out how to hop off this dangerous treadmill here.
↪ Looking Forward
In this next week, I want to practice two things that dovetail in this week's newsletter:
- Waiting expectantly
- Looking for satisfaction in the right places
What does that mean practically?
I definitely can't look for control or complete certainty to bring me joy, because I'll be waiting forever and those things are impossible to hold on to in a broken world.
I need to trade worry and anxiety for trust, and hedonism for gratitude.
Because there's nothing worse than impatiently waiting for something that's not going to satisfy us anyway.
🔧 One Useful Thing
I'm always trying to build better prayer habits into my life, and one app that has been helpful for me lately is the Lectio 365 app by the folks from 24-7 Prayer.
It has thematic prayers for morning, noon, and night, and you can read it or, as I like to do, listen to the prayer on a walk.
It's available for iPhone and Android.
😂 Looking for a Laugh
This feels especially relevant this week for those of us who can’t wait and keep looking for joy in the wrong places.
Wrapping Up
If this made you think—or made you think of someone—would you forward this to them?
If anything struck a chord with you, could you let me know by hitting reply?
And if this is no longer useful for you, feel free to hop off the bandwagon.
Here’s to pursuing the useful life (patiently and purposefully) together,
