truth or consequences

i recently got a ticket for failing to stop completely at a stop sign. i had committed this transgression all the time pre-ticket. you can be sure that every time since then, i have stopped utterly and completely, looking both ways before continuing. however. my thought at each of those stops (and there were many) was this: "pretend there is a cop and stop!" seriously.

now kudos to me for obeying the law, right? it dawned on me this week that i had it all wrong. every time i stopped i should have cared less if there really was a cop or not. i should be stopping correctly because I AM SUPPOSED TO STOP COMPLETELY AT A STOP SIGN!!! i should be going slower and obeying the law because, well, it's the law! 

i feel like we do this with God a lot. maybe unintentionally, maybe boldly. we act a certain way or say "the right thing" because we think of God in terms of 'the police' and we should not be breaking His 'law'. "see what i did there? that will get me brownie points!" or "i better not do this because it's against God's law."

God wants the very opposite from us. He wants a heart that will automatically say and do the right thing because, well, we WANT to! because we wouldn't even think to do it another way. 

how do we achieve this? 

it's so easy we take it for granted and do not do it. it's so easy but we care more about the less important but "quicker-to-achieve" stuff to cross off our 'to do' list. it's so easy but it may be even easier to mope around in our self pity. it's so easy but we live like it is unattainable. 

it's so easy. 

take time.

spend it with HIM. (however you want to! as long as the focus is Him.)

 

 

maybe i am just preaching to myself.

Comments

[Ron]

I think you are right on Daneal :). Too often we go through the motions, in our every day life as well as our spiritual life. It's amazing how when we actually stop and welcome God into our lives, it is so much easier to hear what he wants to say to us!

[Josh]

Youre not preaching to yourself.

:-)