Got Fruit ?

Coming off of a busy weekend, and with an even busier one ahead; I was thinking this evening of how quickly life can jump on and distract a person from maintaining their focus on God.  Even when it’s a matter of doing Kingdom work it’s possible to become distracted from actually spending time with the Lord, by the preparation for the task at hand.

Reflecting on the past 8-9 months since getting this little ‘ole blog up and running I can recall several times where other things that were also going on began to take precedence, be it preparation for an inspection at work, making it to physical therapy, Christmas shopping, making up lost hours or just letting life’s potholes in the road distract.  Inevitably there would be those stints where actual time spent with the Lord in prayer and in His Word took a back seat to my temporal concerns.  Then came the lack of "feeling" God in my life.

To put it in a slightly different perspective, consider your own flesh and blood relationship(s).  Have you ever been in a relationship (not necessarily of the romantic variety) where you felt as though you were the party putting forth what felt like all of the effort or at least most of the effort to make it work?  Maybe it seemed as though you were the one constantly fighting to get the other person’s attention or input, yet they were too busy with other things in life to to appreciate not just the effort on your part but the reason for the effort?  To you, you were fighting tooth and nail to maintain and  strengthen the relationship, to solidify the bond.

Perhaps after some time of fighting what felt like an uphill battle, you finally give up.  After doing so, after the relationship dissolves into something resembling more of a casual acquaintance rather than a tight bond, the other party then takes notice and also realizes that things have changed, the relationship doesn’t feel like it has that particular level of comfort and familiarity to it anymore.  The relationship is now two people who are acquainted with each other, but don’t know each other, they’ve allowed something(s) to come between them which causes feelings of alienation.

For the past month I suppose, I’ve been reading quite a bit from the Old Testament.  Specifically Deuteronomy, Joshua and Judges.  I have to confess that a lot of what I read wasn’t absorbed quickly, the light bulb just wasn’t coming on right away.  Back to the point… I was reading various passages throughout, every other chapter seeming as though the Israelites were getting into a skirmish with another nation.  When they walked with God (specifically when they were obedient to Him) they as a nation prospered, they were successful in their military campaigns against the wicked nations.  However,when the Israelites turned their backs on God, and began worshiping idols of neighboring nations and or prostituting themselves; God in turn turned a deaf ear to them, He let them into their enemies hands.  Until that is, Israel repented from it’s wicked ways and humbled itself to the Lord.  I’m talking about weeping buckets O tears!  The mascara smudging,salty tears in the corner of their contorted mouths with snot dripping from their noses; the grave realization of their trespass, their unfaithfulness to the Lord preceding a wailing of "Oh my God, what have I done!" kind of humbled.

I think that sometimes when I’ve had my moments of what I perceived as walking it alone, the reality of the situation was somewhere between God trying to get my attention and Him waiting for me either to trust in Him or to just remember Him as the top priority.  I look back at some of those moments  of "silence" as God allowing me to endure just enough pain, or experience the feeling of having a void to earnestly seek and take notice of Him.  To notice and know that He is still there and in control.  Funny sometimes how you don’t miss someone until you think that they’re gone.  Through the growing pains,the bumps, bruises and battle scars, God will however, like clock work be there waiting for you. 

Deuteronomy 31:6
6 Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or terrified because of them, for the LORD your God goes with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you."

Grace and peace be with you.