Our Own Way

There are many paths we can take and we get to choose. We can take a well worn path, a little used one, or even blaze a new one. Whatever seems right in our own eyes is usually the path we take.

So it's not only the path we get to choose, but also the criteria by which we choose. Do we use what "feels" right, what is accepted by the greater society, what is morally correct, what is traditionally right, what our faith community teaches? And then the But then delve even further into the mucky gray area since there seems to be many "right" anwers and conflicting criteria. Even the moral absolutes are not so absolute any more.

So how do we choose what path to take or do we just "trust our gut" and go our own way?

That's exactly where the tribes of Israel went wrong! They tested God's way, then tested their own. For half a generation or so, it seemed to work for them, but then the wheels came off. Disobedience always brings discipline, maybe not immediately, but it still comes. Moral failures will always catch up with us. God is watching and hoping, guiding and waiting for us to fully return.

It's not about the path anyway. Rather it's about the purpose, getting to God, living for God, trusting in God, obeying God, relating to God. If this then is the purpose then we'll find the path and there is only One, Jesus.

It's why our own way leads to lostness. We can't find Jesus or God on a path we blaze on our own, even though it's been traveled before and developed, paved, and lined with highway oases. Because the true path that leads to God is challenging, sacrificial, narrow, adventurous. It's this path that ignites the senses and empowers the life.

It's not our own way where we'll find life. It's only truly found on God's way.

So, let's keep on track.

Peace ><>
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With Abandon

Ever lose control? Just losing it over something, whether it was cheering a Bears (or Colts) victory or smashing your thumb with a hammer. There are times when we give up self-control to be present in a moment. It's called abandon.

It's a word I've come across a lot lately. It's the name of the band that is coming to Senior High Institute (camp) this summer, so I've been listening to their music. It's also a theme throughout the scriptures in a call to lose ones' self in the worship of God.

The people volunteered with abandon, bless God!
Hear O Kings! Listen O princes!
To God, yet to God, I'll sing.
Make music to God, to the God of Israel. (Judges 5:2b-3, Msg)

To abandon one's self to God is an all encompassing act of faith. It's to set aside one's self-conscious awareness, or simply let go. In worship that can be to clap the hands, to raising the arms, to lifting the voice regardless what anyone else does or thinks. It's an act of connecting to God with the heart and soul instead of the mind and thought. It's to lose the self to God, to connect the self to God, it's to in some ways become one with God. (we are not God, but we can get so close to God as to become at one with God!) This is the goal of worship, to be so in tune with the presence of God that we are lost in God.

Yet we rarely lose control because we spend our lives trying to gain control.

Yes, sometimes it's okay to be lost! When it's in God!

Lift your hearts high, O Israel (us), with abandon, volunteering yourselves with the people - bless God! (Judges 5:9, Msg)

Peace ><>
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