"Fine"

 Once upon a yester-year,

Was called a fine young man,

Did not feel so fine at all,

Thought I’ll try the best I can.

Fine is what I said I was,

When anybody asked,

 I was taught to say it,

Turns out it was a mask,

To hide the fact I was not fine,

In fact not even close,

I saw the ones I thought who were,

And envied them the most.

By standards that so many used,

I did all right, just fine,

Drove the cars, lived in the house,

And followed culture’s line.

If you work and try real hard,

To play by all the rules,

You’ll do great and be just fine,

Not like those other fools.

But in the end what looked fine,

Just did not meet the test,

It didn’t really matter much,

That I did my best.

This is what I learned at last,

Fine comes when only when,

The Good Lord says that you are fine,

And never before then.

He said, son, you are a cowboy,

It’s what you’ll always be,

And what you need to understand,

Is that’s okay with Me.

Just seek first heaven’s kingdom,

That’s your priority,

Surrender everything you have,

And then come follow Me.

Trust me to provide for you,

Don’t worry ‘bout a thing,

And I will bless your life just fine,

If you make Me your King.

And that’s exactly what I did,

Now so thankful all the time,

And no, life is not perfect,

But it will turn out fine.

“Seek the Kingdom of God above all else, and live righteously, and He will give you everything you need…” (Matthew 6:33, NLT)

Sometimes it is very difficult to accurately assess what we really need. But God knows, and has promised to provide exactly that. His requirement is that we wholeheartedly cooperate with His rule in our lives. To seek His Kingdom above all else means to surrender control of every aspect of our lives to His will. It is proactively asking that His Kingdom come and will be done in us as it is in heaven. If we hold nothing back from Him we position ourselves to receive His highest and best in every circumstance. Doing so is also the only real escape from worry.

Lord, help us to cooperate fully with Your will, in Jesus’ name.

Art by Doug Monson, used by permission. Thanks, Doug, and God bless you.