For those of you who have followed me for any length of time, you know we’re expecting our first child in just under a month.

The past week, it’s as if time has stood still. I never was the girl who dreamed of a household full of children or the day I would become a mom. It just wasn’t me, but the closer we get to August the more I anticipate this little one’s arrival. Isn’t it amazing how God’s timing is perfect?

And yet, in many ways, the waiting feels like it has stalled all of life.

You know, sometimes I think that’s how we are as Christians. We forget the Bible says we’ve been set free (John 8:36); instead, we’re taken captive by life’s pursuits (some good, some bad).

Now, don’t get me wrong, in this case I think anticipation over little one’s arrival is joyful in God’s sight. There’s nothing inherently wrong with chasing dreams and desires either, but if that’s our life’s primary purpose, we’ve settled for something far less than God’s best.

In Matthew 22, when a Pharisee asks Jesus about the greatest commandment, he says:

‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the great and foremost commandment. The second is like it, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’

 We often love life more than we love God. When marriage doesn’t work or a career goes south, we replace and refill. We seek momentary satisfactions for temporary pleasures, stuffing our world with little dreams and foregoing the big picture. How foolish we are to think anything else can satisfy like bringing Christ glory! We are His creation, created in His image. So many of us, Christians included, walk through life with a wanderlust for the wrong things. The chains of deferred dreams could shackle my world into ruin in an instant.

I still look forward to the day I hold our son in my hands, and I believe he’s part of God’s plan for my life. But with each new turn and with each pursuit, I must seek God first. If He says ‘no’, if He chooses to take me down a different road, I will walk content.

That’s where the caveat comes into play, if my world is built on God’s glory alone, I can find freedom in the journey. It’s not my path to walk, it’s His. So dear friends, “it was for freedom that Christ set us free…” (Galatians 5:1). May we walk in such joyous living!