How many times do you find yourself moving slowly and deliberately because you don't want to do something at hand? My windows need a good washing and I keep putting it off. It isn't that the job is all that hard. I just don't like having to pry the screens off and then wash them down, allow them to dry, and then return them to their place. I don't mind the window-washing part - it is the whole screen issue that gets in the way of me completing the job as quickly as I'd like! So, I drag my feet a little when it comes to completing this project, but if they are to be washed, I must stop my foot-dragging behavior, buckle down, and get 'er done. How many things in life do we just 'drag our feet' on, only to find if we just buckle down a bit, we'd be very pleased with the outcome?
Committed faith isn't just accidental - it is purposefully putting one foot in front of the other, learning to walk one step at a time, eventually finding our way to a more consistent walk. We might drag our feet a little when it comes to taking steps of obedience because the 'work' seems a bit too hard. Commitment to Christ means we take steps - not that we march in place! Do you know how you develop a life of obedience? You take the first step toward 'right practices'. We never develop 'right practices' just by recognizing we need to develop them. That would be a silly as thinking my windows could get clean without me getting out there, prying down the screens, and scrubbing off the Arizona dust. All of us can look at the need for something in our lives way too long - allowing time to pass as we drag our feet in what is nothing more than a slow and deliberate lack of obedience.
A course has been set. At the point of our saying 'yes' to Jesus, a new course was mapped out for our lives. Plain and simple, we were to start taking steps in a different direction - choices were to change. How have we been doing with that one? If you are anything like me, you make some good ones and then you make some bad ones. Hopefully you find the bad ones become less and less and the good ones begin to occur more frequently. If you have ever looked at a map, spreading it out across the kitchen table, then leaned in to get a good look at what course you'd take to get to a destination, you likely have noticed what places you'd pass by and those you might actually like to stop to explore along the way. That is the purpose of setting a course to a destination - giving you the path of what you want to pass through and those things you want to take in a little.
When we set that course with Jesus' help, we find he gives us clear guidance to 'pass through' some things, while he allows us to 'take in' others. What has his guidance done for us? It has kept us from deviating from the course, but allowed us to enjoy the journey, as well! Those 'pass-through' moments are necessary for us to get to our destination, but those 'take in' moments are what make the journey awesome. I have driven by landmark after landmark, but when I actually stop to take one in, I am always amazed at how much beauty I behold, or knowledge I obtain as a result of having 'taken it in'. The one who want to have a committed faith will acknowledge when they are dragging their feet a bit and will see the advantage to letting go of that 'reluctance' to take the next step. They will put one foot out, then another, taking steps in the right direction. Why? They want to 'take in' the things God has prepared for them, while leaving behind others. That is obedience. Just sayin!
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