Please forgive me - this blue moon is lasting a while.
Cameron and I went for a long walk this evening around our neighborhood. Part of our walk included a steep hike uphill until we reached a path that took us around part of Tubb's Hill.
In all of my thinking about my walk with God lately, I started thinking about the verse that says to lay aside things and run with patience. You know, if I had been carrying my 10 pound medicine ball up that hill, after just a few minutes, that weight would have been all that I would have thought about. I would have been thinking about how heavy it was, how silly it was to carry it on the walk, and how much it was worth to me. If it wasn't worth very much, I probably would have just left it in the trail so that I could actually finish the hike instead of falling down in exhaustion.
Spiritual application: I have discovered that my life was just like that hike. Except I am carrying along that medicine ball. It's called life. I have a wonderful husband who loves me and treats me with respect and care; we both have good jobs, and our needs and wants are supplied; we have a warm place to live and are looking forward to having a nice house; our cars run, our bellies are full, and we have plenty of clothes to wear. It's pretty easy to get into the rut of just focusing on those "weights". I enjoy my life; it's pretty cushy. I get up, go to work, come home, fix dinner, and most nights get to spend time with my best friend. I have found myself focusing on that though. Thinking about it like a weight puts it into perspective. I'm headed for Heaven: anything that gets in my way is silly. I have to focus on pressing forward, laying aside those weights. (I don't mean literally - I'm not going to leave my husband, etc. I mean spiritually stop focusing on them.) I need to focus instead on how much I enjoy others walking with me, and try to compel more and more people to join me in this glorious race. If only people could understand how beneficial this "exercise" is for them. They work out, eat right, and try to take care of their bodies. You have a soul, people. You should feed it right and exercise it correctly too.
Come and go with me to my Father's house, where there's joy, joy, joy.
Understand what you mean. Sometimes we get so focused in on things that we lose sight of the ultimate goal and God has to come and put it back into perspective.
ReplyDeleteYou always have walked too fast... wait up for your sister, alrighty? :-)
Your joy is contagious! Love you.
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed your post! The way that the Lord has been dealing with me lately is wrapped up in this scripture: "Put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ and make not provision for the flesh to fulfill the lusts thereof." I've been thinking of ways in my life that I've been making "provision for the flesh"--not horrible immoral sin--but in things like slothfulness, "light" gossip, and like you said, focusing on the things of this life that are soooo temporary. This morning I read the scripture, "Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness"--that puts things in perspective, doesn't it? I, just like you, want to be closer to Jesus.
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