“The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.” John 10:10

If you were to look into my guest room last weekend you would have found a chair piled high with little-girl clothes.

I’m sad to say that if you had dug beneath this pile of dresses, t-shirts, and shorts left over from summer, you would have unearthed my Bible, my current devotional book, and my journal.

As you can probably guess, this wasn’t just a pile of clothes. This was a picture of my week. Focused on the task of getting my family’s closets ready for fall and winter, I allowed other things, important things, to fall by the wayside, my Bible and devotions included.

I told myself I could handle this, a week away from God. I told myself I’d be okay; I wouldn’t melt down this time, as I have so many times before when I’ve tried the same stunt. Yet come Sunday, I stood before that pile of clothes ragged and frayed, and I knew that, once again, I’d bought into the lie.

The lie that says I can make it on my own. The lie that says my heart can go days and days without connecting with God and get along just fine.

Will I ever learn?

Have you ever noticed that when you buy into a lie it will always lead to another? This is how Satan weaves his web, and on this Sunday morning I was stuck.

I was stuck in defeat and discouragement. I was stuck in the mindset that no matter what I do, I will never succeed at being a devoted follower of Christ, a wife, a mother, a homemaker, and a writer.

My work on our closets was perfect proof. True, my closets were neat and organized and ready for fall. But what of my heart? What good could come when I succeed in one area yet fail in three others?

How do I make time for all the things my heart feels called to? Will I ever manage, juggle, succeed in each facet, each role? How do you take a full life and make it truly full?

“Remember the one thing needed…”

He’s spoken these words before and it’s a lesson I must learn again. Of Mary and Martha and the choice that is ever before me.

I’m not going to pretend to know the answers. What I do know, what I’m learning, is that trying to do all the right, and worthy, and important things that I feel called to do, without making space and time for God, is madness.

No matter how many times I try. No matter how many different combinations and attempts I make, the equation doesn’t work without Him.

It’s just that simple. Trying to build a marriage, a family, a writing life, without Him as the foundation results in nothing but a house of cards. A pile of rubble. A mountain of clothes atop the one thing that matters.

Sweet friends, perhaps you’re like me. Perhaps you’re striving, day after day, to make it on your own, to wear all the hats, to operate apart from time spent with God. Not because you want to, but because you feel there are so many things screaming for your attention. You struggle to know how and when to make all the pieces of your life fit together. And you’re tired, and weary, and flailing.

Whatever God is doing in your life today, might I urge you to lay your foundation on Him? To remember the one thing needed?

Satan’s web is big and sprawling, but God’s web is bigger still. Woven with strings of grace and love, God’s web will hold all the pieces in peace. It will hold all that is in you, and around you, together.  

No one wants you to succeed more than God. And no one wants to be an intimate part of your life, your challenges, your pursuits, your failures, and your successes more than Him.

Why not make this the day? The day you break free from Satan’s web. The day that you dig beneath the rubble and uncover the life He intends for you. A life spent with Him. A life of purpose and peace. A life lived to the full.