I recently hung out with my pastor and his family and we went to the Manhattan Children’s Museum to hang and let his kids play. We took the subway to get there and when we were about halfway there his 2 year old said “Hey Daddy, here’s our stop”. He was so confident and happy that he knew what stop we were getting off at- but he was wrong. We still had quite a few more to go, but it was so funny because he said it as if his father didn’t notice and he was reminding him and showing off his sense of direction. But there weren’t any clues that should have made him think we were getting off yet, it was just so out of the blue.
Later when we walked down a few blocks to the local bakery he did something similar on the way there. We were near a random corner store and he stopped and excitedly exclaimed, “Oh, here we are daddy.” He was so sure that the corner store was a bakery. I must also mention that this store looked nothing like the bakery. I really wonder what went through his mind when he came to that conclusion since nothing about the store resembled our final destination. After we had purchased the food from the bakery we walked back outside and the 2 year old led the way and swiftly made a hard right and wanted us to follow him. Sorry buddy but once again you’re a bit off. We needed to go left to get back to the apartment. Again he looked a bit perplexed that his confident thought process had been wrong. But we kindly reminded him where to go and guided him in that direction.
It’s just so funny how he kept thinking he knew where he was going but kept being either totally wrong or just not quite there yet. I think this is very telling of how we as Christians often interact with God. We often arrive at points in our lives where we feel like we have achieved a certain level of “holiness” or have gained victory over sins. We think, “OK, I’m in a good place and have been doing great. Look God, I’ve been good and obedient.” That’s when I feel like God looks at us and gently shakes his head and giggles a bit. One thing that we as Christians forget is that our lives will never have rest. We will never get to a good plateau of obedience and holiness that we can look up at God and he looks back and says, “you’ve made it.” We will always be in a state of sanctification if we are seeking Him. We gotta remember that repentance becomes more frequent as we mature in Christ. Because the more we grow the more God reveals to us what he wants us to repent of and to loosen our grip on. Repentance can never stop and we will not find rest until we are home in Heaven. When we start to head in a wrong direction in life God is right there to preach repentance to us like my pastor was for his son. He’s there to tell us we’re headed in a wrong direction and have us turn and follow Him. The main way that we know the will of God for our lives is already provided for us in the scriptures and so this is a beautiful truth that we can always turn to the Bible for wisdom and direction. So generally the more we know scripture our sense of direction is more clear and then it just comes down to choosing the correct direction and being obedient. So seek scripture and use wisdom in the truths that God has already laid out for us.
May we press on in suffering living a life of constant repentance and resting in our savior Christ Jesus and His scriptures.
very nice mickey. i enjoyed what you had to say.. keep em coming.