Some days are easier than others. We move about with a smoothness and ease that we can almost forget the difficulties of yesterday. In moments like these we can feel as though we can take on the world. Ten more loads of laundry? No problem. Need me to run 137 errands? No sweat. Double up my job responsibilities. Why not? Have five more kiddos? Sure, God BRING IT ON!
Then there are days where simply getting through feels like rubbing your entire self against sandpaper. We feel the heavy weight of all there is left to be done and remaining on our never-ending checklists in the coming minutes, days, weeks and months. We can become so overwhelmed with all that has yet to be accomplished that we become unable to move, frozen with an anxious sense of it’s just too much. We can begin to feel so debilitated by even the most menial duties. I often feel utterly incapable of planning the week’s meals, the kiddos sports schedule, the school assignments that need tackling, or what bills I should attempt to pay. The heaviness of the difficulties of life can cast a dark shadow and I try to look ahead but see no sign of the sun’s light. Then I hear his words echoing around in the depths of my soul and I begin to move. The words he taught me.
I started dating my husband when I was practically still a baby, at the young age of 17, though I was convinced I had reached all maturity at that point. My husband comes from a wholesomely beautiful home with a very tight knit extended family. Although his nuclear family wasn’t extraordinarily large, being one of 3 kids, his extended family of cousins, aunts and uncles, was like an enormous gang that you so desperately wanted to be a part of. The simple witness of love that abounded from his family was magnetically attractive.
At the head of this beautiful family, stood the patriarch. The gorilla sized teddy bear with a trunk sized bag of jokes nicely tucked away in his heart, a welcoming smile the size of Texas, and a child-like love for life – POPPIE. He had an old fashioned charm that captivated your heart. The only one in the room that caught on to the fact that I could eat like a trucker yet run around with the swiftness of a teenage light-weight. “Suzanne I found more food for you, keep it going – I love how you eat” he’d say with a wink and a giggle. Someone else may have said this to me and I would have instantly felt self-conscious. But not with Poppie. He had a way of teasing you with a love so fierce that your heart swelled with the joy of knowing that together you shared a secret.
Toward the end of his enormously lived life, Poppie stood by his tiny wife whom he treasured more than life itself, looked out upon his children and grandchildren and said “Look at all we’ve done Mert, life is good.” I have never known another soul who valued the treasure of family more than this man. For this alone my heart was sold, I was his.
So here I stood at the dirty edge of my kitchen sink paralyzed with too much to get done, simply overwhelmed with all I needed to accomplish in the next month. How will I survive these next few weeks? There’s just no way, I’m going to break! Then his words, which he learned a long time ago, slowly started to trickle back into my heart. “Inch by inch life’s a cinch, yard by yard life is hard.” I looked up and saw the dishes right in front of my eyes and I started to wash while whispering “inch by inch” the entire time. Then slowly the weight of the world started to lift from my tired shoulders. What freedom we can find when we don’t worry about all to come, but simply tackle the task that has been set out right in front of us.
What a beautiful life lesson this is, and one we need to remind ourselves constantly when we become frozen with fear over all that is left to do. Yet, this isn’t some newly profound lesson taught by one of my earthly heroes. No, it is a message that has been set out for us for thousands of years. The Son of Man himself told us so clearly to not worry about what is needed tomorrow, but instead to focus simply on today. During his infamous Sermon on the Mount, Jesus comforted the hearts of the weary with his words; “Do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.” Matthew 6:34.
So whether you have the teddy bear strength of a man breathing these words into your heart, or you reflect on the ever-timely words from the God of the universe, I pray we can all find rest in knowing that life was not meant to be lived ten yards at a time. Rather, it is here in the now, in the midst of the moments of today that our Lord is calling us to move simply inch by inch, one dish at a time.
~Suzanne Bilodeau
