Tuesday, February 12, 2008

How Will They Know Series

Psalm 16:1 “Keep me safe, O God, for in you I take refuge.” 

 

Tossed

I talked to so many people who feel as though their lives are out of their control – work responsibilities, spouse responsibilities, and kid responsibilities, that seem to roll over them like hurricane-sized waves by the sea.  So many times as they tell me about their loss of control, I voice for them this image:   “Do you feel like a cork floating in the ocean, and driven from storm to storm?  They simply nod their head and say, “That is the way I feel.”  

 

This is a foolish way to live!   Even in periods of crisis, we are not victims of a life contriving to defeat us.   Honestly, it is our choices and our lack of boundaries that cause us to lose control.  

 

From personal experience, Sundays through Thursdays are like a marathon.   If I set the boundary of Friday off and Tuesday and Thursday nights at home or doing something I enjoy then my life seems manageable. I say to myself when I can’t follow those boundaries, “a force beyond my control has seized my life.”  If the District Superintendent has called a meeting for me on Tuesday or Thursday night, if someone in the church wants to meet on those nights, or if I have not finished my sermon by Friday, then I surrender time for my family and for myself.    The truth is I make a choice.  I make a choice to diminish my own sanity for the sake of primarily, going to meetings where mostly nothing is accomplished.  

 

I believe God wants us to live a life where we set our course with Him and we follow that course.   If we are going to go to Montgomery from Spanish Fort we go north on Highway 225 and I-65 to the Montgomery exit.   What if I veered off the interstate and got off at Castleberry and rode down that road for a while to see what was there and got ice cream?   Or if I got off at Evergreen and rode through the town to look at all the beautiful old houses?  Or if I got off at Georgiana to see the Hank Williams museum?   Or if I stopped at Pine Apple and ate barbecue at the Big Pig?   Or If I stopped at Priester’s Pecans at Fort Deposit?    Or if I stopped at Pintlala to see the beautiful countryside?   If I did any of these things, I would make the trip to Montgomery twice as long and very tedious.   The truth is we set the course for the journey ahead.  We must stay the course.  

 

Let us take the time to prayerfully consider our lives.  Let us take the time to consider what is essential.  Let us cull-out the periphery.   May we follow the major vision and commitments we have made.  We are not called to live a meaningless, aimless, crisis-driven existence. God intends for us to have a life.   It is our choice to have a life of purpose. It is our choice as to whether we have it or not.   It is never God’s intention for us to be a cork driven by the storm of an overfilled date book. 

 

Prayer: Dear God, help me to keep my life in order. Amen.