High Maintenance

I have a confession to make:  I am high maintenance.  My husband has said that for years.  Of course I told him that he didn't have a clue, that he was oh so wrong.  But after recently reviewing the "stuff" I took on an overnight trip to my daughter's,  I had to agree.  Dang it.

I like make-up and put on plenty every day; foundation, blush, eye shadow, mascara.    I use special face cream and an eye cream that claim to prevent aging and wrinkles.  (They aren't working.)  I need special cream for my very dry skin and for my recently diagnosed eczema. I have fine hair so I have a special shampoo and conditioner to prevent limp locks  and special mousse to try to plump it up even further.   And I like to use my own hair dryer.

I need several prescriptions for various things.  A pill to regulate my thyroid, one to regulate my hormones (my husband makes sure that I never run out of that one), two pills and two inhalers for my recently diagnosed asthma.  I look like a traveling pharmacy.

And then after I spent an hour removing the sequins from a shirt because I was afraid that they would irritate my skin, I had to face the music.  I am definitely high maintenance.  (Why, you ask, did I buy a shirt that I would have to alter anyway?  It was on SALE and it matched a sweater that was also on SALE,  but I digress.) 

I was telling this to an old friend and she agreed about my being high maintenance about some things.  But she said that in the area of friendship she thought I was a cactus.  I asked, "so you think I'm dry and prickly" ?  She  laughed and explained that even though we might not talk every day, she knew that she could call on me for anything at any time.  We know that we are friends and we don't have to baby our friendship, we are real with each other and there's nothing high maintenance about it.

I can accept the fact that I am high maintenance in the grooming department.  But I don't want to be a high maintenance kind of friend.  They can wear you out with expectations and you will ultimately fail them in some way.  But I especially don't want to be a high maintenance kind of Christian who can't worship on Sundays if the right type of music isn't playing or because I feel like someone in the church has hurt my feelings with some slight, whether real or imagined. I don't want to be the kind of person who feels like God has failed or forsaken me because my circumstances have taken a turn for the worse. I have to admit that I have felt this way in the past.  But God will never fail us no matter how our circumstances might change.

And aren't you thrilled that we serve a God who isn't high maintenance?  We don't have to be in a particular type of dress we have to wear to approach Him.  We can worship Him in a variety of ways, there are no prescribed rituals or formulas that we have to perform in order to  worship Him. We can go before His throne with our petitions at any time.  He never sleeps and will never turn us away.  We don't have to live in fear of not being good enough. Jesus' death on the cross made us good enough.  He won't reject us if we are having a bad hair day, or because have wrinkles or if we don't measure up to the world's standards.  We don't have to work for His love.   His Word  tells us just how simple it is :

You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.


             Jeremiah 29:13

Praise His Holy Name!