What happens when our toys break

Today is trash day in my neighborhood, and with that you occasionally get to see some interesting things.
This particular trash day, I saw some child's toy that was being thrown away.  It clearly had been well used, but had since broken, and was now destined for the local dump.

It made me think about all the things we put before God, all the things that we lust after that are so darn important at that particular moment in time.  Yet, when it's all said and done,  they are nothing more than fodder for a landfill.

What are some things that we idolize?

-Food.  How often is it used as a stress reliever, something to make us feel good, or as "soul food"?
-Gadgets: This one was a big one for me.  Purchasing something new and shiny to make me feel good for a while.  You could put clothing, cars, just about anything you wanted into this category.
-Physical pleasure.  Again, lots of things can go in here,and lots of "lusts" fill this category.

Now, all that being said, I'm not saying that it's wrong to enjoy things in life.  I have never read anything in the Bible that says we are supposed to have miserable lives.  But the Bible does give us specific parameters on how we are supposed to enjoy the gifts God gives us. For example, take Proverbs 21:17 : "Whoever loves pleasure will become poor; whoever loves wine and olive oil will never be rich."
There the Bible is warning us that we are not to put wine (and olive oil) before our love for God.  How often do you put something in your own life before God?

In my own life, I know I've been guilty of this more often than not.  God has had to work with me quite a lot to help detach me from things that I put before Him.  I have learned a lot of painful lessons along the way, and I though I would mention a few things that have helped me:

1. The first question I ask myself when temped by an idol is: WHY?  Why do I desire this thing?
If I am looking at a new purchase, is it because its something I need, something I can use to help someone out with, or is it simply something that I want?  And if I just want it, why do I want it?
See where this is going?  I'm trying to get to the root cause of the desire.  If the desire does not originate with something God would want me to do or have, then I know its not a good idea to get it.  And if in doubt, I take time to think about the purchase, and pray about it.

2. Stay away from temptations.  Using an example of food, if Whoppers are your thing, then stay away from Burger King!  This may sound overly simplistic, but it works really well.  In the New Testament, we are told to flee from sin and temptation multiple times, the most famous of which is James 4:7 "Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you."  Again, not a hard concept to get our heads around, but we often skate way to close to something that causes us to sin and it gets us.  If Whoppers are your temptation (and I'm not trying to knock BK here) don't drive near a BK.  If necessary, take a different route with your car and go around the area you know where one is.  The last thing you want to do is simply sit in the parking lot, drinking in the smell, and then wonder why your willpower wasn't strong enough. 


3.  It's not enough to just flee from sin.  You also need to turn towards something else.  If you flee sin, and just start going in another direction, you will find something else to fill your craving or emotional need.  And it may just be another idol to take up your time.  When you flee sin, you need to turn towards God.  After all, repentance does not mean to just say you're sorry, and that's the end of it.  It means that not only do you regret what you did, you also change your behavior to reflect your new belief.  That means filling your life up with God, with prayer, scripture reading, etc.  




Finally, I want to close with the hope that there can be change, and that you can, with God's help make progress with whatever is getting in the way of your relationship with God.  I know, because I have had to overcome many such issues in my own life, and I know that I have accomplished that only through the power of Jesus Christ.
There are many more tips that could be given (such as having people to support you and hold you accountable) but this list was meant as a start, somewhere to begin.  My prayer and hope is that you would pray to God to show you what idols you hold in your life, and begin to let them go, and move closer to God.

God bless, and I look forward to your comments!

Keeping God first in this busy world.

As Christians, we all want to keep God in the forefront of our mind, to "pray without ceasing" as is described in 1 Thessalonians 5:17.  We want to stay close to God, we want to stay connected, we want to have that relationship that only comes with a true connection with the Holy Spirit.

But we rarely get that, don't we?

Why is that? What gets in the way and prevents us from accomplishing the lofty goals that we have?

There are lots of reasons that this can happen, from loss of faith, to falling into more routine with God than relationship, all the way to just being plain busy.  But today I wanted to focus in on an area that I find particularly easy to get sucked in by:

Multitasking

We live in a society that makes it easier than ever to succumb to the dreaded sin of being "too busy" or "too distracted" to hear God's voice.  Between text messages, instant messages, phone calls, Twitter, Facebook, email, web surfing, TV watching, etc. we have way too much to keep us endlessly entertained by things that often accomplish little.  (Not to say all those things are without merit- just that like with any good thing, they can be taken too far.  What ever happened to "Be still, and know that I am God?" Psalm 46:10

All the technologies I listed above are all designed to save us time, to keep us in touch with people, and to enrich our lives.  However, this has been taken too far on too many occasions.  How often have you been in a restaurant, and seen people interrupt a conversation with each other to take a call or a text?  How about a tweet?

Those things are all distractions, and if we are willing to allow them to distract us from the person in front of us, or our driving, what's to stop them from paying attention to God?

And I know I have been guilty of doing those same things as much as anyone.  I used to be one of those people who was always into the latest technology fad, and had to have the latest gadget.  But I've always found it so impolite to not pay attention to the person standing right in front of me.   I found it much more so when it was a relationship with God.

Based upon that, I've found three simple things that have helped me  get back my life from multitasking, and build better relationships with God and with the ones we love.


1.  Put the phone/tablet/remote down.  Simple as that.  When you are having a conversation with someone, take the time to put that phone on silent.  When you are praying do the same thing.  Start taking it a step further, by not answering calls or text messages instantly.  You will start to unhook yourself from that habit, and once you stop answering instantly, people will stop expecting you to do so as much. I've found my stress levels went down as well.

2. Have a way to store your thoughts and things that need to be done.  I am not a huge fan of to-do lists, but I do realize the value to taking the time to put something important down on paper.   When I don't, I often find that idea or thing I need to get done takes residence in my brain, and I've got to constantly try to remember it.  Ever been in the middle of a prayer and suddenly remember something you need to get at the grocery store?  Okay, maybe that's just me, but I bet I'm not the only one.  By getting it out of my head and onto a list of some kind it really helps me stay more focused.  A great book on the subject:  Getting Things Done by David Allen.  Presents some practical, simple ideas on how to do this.

3. Make God a priority in your day.  This comes down to good old fashioned discipline.   Not a word many people like in this day in age, but it still holds true.  You may not want to do it, but starting your day off with prayer and Bible reading can help set the tone for the rest of the day.  A lot of people (including myself for a while) think that you should just pray when you feel like it.  The problem is that our hearts can be fickle things, and we have this wonderful tendency to be self-centered.  Most of the time I don't "feel" like reading the Bible, but I do it anyways.  And almost every time I am done with it, I feel better, closer to God, and have learned some new truth from the text.  Think of it this way:  You may not feel like loving your spouse every day.  But you are committed to them, and deep down you have a relationship you care about with them.  So you do things for them, like make dinner, pick up their favorite flowers, etc. even when you don't feel like it. Our relationship with God is often like that.

Final thought: there are many techniques in this world that claim to help you get better at prayer, and staying connected with God.  From my experience, the biggest thing is just to pray.  Don't worry about technique, don't worry about timing, God will take care of that.  Just pray.  As it has been said before, the only bad prayer is no prayer at all.

I look forward to comments below, and I would love to hear some other ideas of how to stay focused on God.

God bless!