When I was a kid, I was quite sickly, or at least I thought I was. I remember being elementary school age and when it was time to go on a vacation or field trip for school the first thing I did was pack a bag of medications. How old was I? 8 or 80! I'd put Tylenol in the bag in case I had a headache, Pepto for my tummy, those stomach aches were paralyzing. I didn't even enjoy the trip, I was always afraid of getting ill. But, if I didn't have my bag of meds with me I was downright terrified. My thoughts of fear consumed me. I believed the worst. I didn't know Jesus as my loving Savior then. In fact, I saw God very much in character from the Old Testament and I might as well have been from Sodom or Gamora because I just knew He was disappointed in me and wanted me off this earth. In middle school, things didn't get much better. I would literally sit every day in the nurse's office and read the Physician's Desk Reference and self diagnose every day. Each day I had a terrible disease. It took a lot of years to undo that mindset of fear. Still today, when faced with new challenges, I find myself grabbing for my medication bag. Now why is it not my instinct to grab for Jesus? I wonder what it is you grab for? What brings you comfort? One of my other obsessions is with my fitness and weight. I consider what I will consume, how much I'll exercise just to stay in decent shape. These thoughts consume me. My volunteer work at church, yes ministry can be an obsession if we allow it. Anything that is all consuming, anything that fights for or demands our attention is an idol. Our children can even be an idol. The Israelites were surrounded by this issue all the time, they lived in a pagan society. There were gods for the gods. I remember the story in Genesis when God asked Jacob to collect all the false gods he and his family had and get rid of them. He collected them all and he buried them under an oak tree at Shechem. When I read that, my first thought was why didn't he destroy them? Burn them, do something to wipe them out completely. I feel like he only hid them. But in my judgement of my great ancestor, I realized haven't I done the same thing? When I recognized my idol do I simply put it away or "bury" it instead of destroying it or at least destroying its place in my life? God had asked Jacob to do this 30 years earlier but now he has ears to hear. Jacob's life was surrounded by heartbreak. Isn't it amazing how personal crisis somehow makes our obedience to God sharper? Is there something God has asked you to do, maybe a god that needs to be put away? Maybe it's inconvenient right now, we're so busy doing life we just don't have the time. Maybe we aren't ready to give up what's consuming us to make more room for Him. If we're there, the good news is He waited 30 years for Jacob and He waited 40 years for me! He is so patient and so loving and YOU are so worth the wait! Consider your life, consider what consumes your time, your thoughts, your actions...maybe its time to find your oak tree at Shechem.
"Break down their altars, smash their sacred stones
and burn their Asherah poles in the fire; cut down
the idols of their gods and wipe out their names
from those places."
Deuteronomy 12:3
No comments:
Post a Comment