Sometimes my computer gets so messed up that it freezes and doesn’t do what it should. Do you know how to fix that? Shut it down. Wait. Start it up. The default settings come back, and you’re good to go for a while again!

Sometimes life feels so messed up that we freeze and don’t feel like we do anything the way we should. Have you been there recently? Do you know how to fix that? Shut down your worries and get back to your default settings. What are those settings?

The story has it that when Michelangelo came down from the scaffolding that he had set up while painting the Sistine Chapel, he had become so accustomed to looking upward that it caused actual pain to turn his eyes to the ground. His default had become gazing on the story of God’s love that he was painting.

Let it be yours too. Before there was a world, there was just God. He thought of your face . . . and he smiled. From that moment on he did everything he needed to make you his, including dying on a cross and rising from the dead. Now every day his goal is to keep you close until he spends eternity with you in heaven.

When life seems messed up, let that love of God be your default setting, “know and rely on the love God has for [you]” (1 John 4:16).