Devotionals Daily: A Year with Jesus – November 27

Devotionals Daily: A Year with Jesus

Stress Less
by David Zerfoss

Spot That Sprout

Mary kept up a constant and hectic schedule of work travel. It kept her metabolism and adrenaline high. Add this to the fact that she was keeping up with two very active, triple sports–playing teenage sons, which meant there wasn’t much time leftover to think about “simplifying.” Besides, simple lives were what other people wanted. She was very content. She was busy being busy.

During one business trip out west, Mary traveled with one of her company’s sales representatives. His name was Bob, and he was quite up in years. Mary often wondered why Bob continued to work at such an advanced age and chose to keep such a sizeable multistate territory.

On this particular trip they were traveling on an especially long car route, visiting customers throughout New Mexico and then on to Colorado. After driving several hours through sparselypopulated, very dry, and rocky terrain without even a singletraffic light in sight for miles, Bob looked over at Mary and said,“Are you overwhelmed by the vastness of the landscape andwondering when will it ever end?”

“Yes,” she replied. “How did you know what I was thinking?”

Bob explained that throughout his many years of traveling this route, everyone who accompanied him felt the very same thing. Then Bob went on to share a profound rule with Mary about simplifying. Bob explained to Mary that we can all choose to easily get lost in and feel overwhelmed by our surroundings.

“Do you see that little tree sprouting up there ahead, among all those large rock formations?” Bob asked. Mary strained her eyes but could not find what he was seeing. As they got closer,

Bob pointed out the small sprouting tree he had seen when it was far off in the distance. Bob shared with Mary that he handled these long drives through hundreds of miles of vast terrain by looking for the little things amid the overwhelming, complex landscape. He didn't focus on just seeing what was all around him, but rather he chose to look for what he might have been missing. He continued on his drive, merrily searching for and pointing out more little things hiding along the way. As you go about your day, are you letting yourself become overwhelmed by the vast amount of things in the landscape of your life? Choose to live by one of Bob’s rules, and spot that sprout you might otherwise be missing. In the midst of daunting, wide-open spaces, take the time to “be still, and know” that He is God (Psalm 46:10). Did you know that “the whole earth is full of His glory” (Isaiah 6:3)? We need only take the time to look.

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