A Midst the Bustle

After dropping Mason off at school, I headed out with Ryan, a bag of tricks to keep him happy and my lists. He was a gem the whole time. I could not believe it. What a blessing! I spent the entire preschool time crossing of items on our gift lists. Awesome!
In fact, he was so quiet and happy I spent way too much time wandering around looking at things that weren't on the list.
It's the age old problem. I have a list in hand, but when I enter the endless world of retail, suddenly the list doesn't seem long enough. Surely, I need this and that. My thoughts get muddled. My list gets stuffed deeper in my pocket b/c if I referred back to the list none of those other items would be on it. Fortunately, I am too practical to walk away with much, but it does leave my brain feeling overworked and peaceful.

This semester in Wellspring, I have noticed in Genesis that God's people are constantly doing this too. Not at a store mind you, but in every day life. God tells them what to do (for their good) and as they go about their days they forget. They form their own plans, their own ways and suddenly their to-do list (God's word) no longer matters.
Their stories of failure, God's pursuit of them regardless, His grace and their return to him(or not) has been teaching me a lot. I feel like I have a better understanding of our sin nature. After all, I am just like them. God has given me his Word. I can read it or it can sit on the shelf. I can apply it to my life or I can justify my reason's for ignoring it. Perhaps the gap between the people of the Old Testament and myself is shrinking.

Even when I am reading it and learning and applying it to my life, the world and all it's neon lights still distract me. I am realizing that if the distractions go on long enough I become complacent to them. The lines get fuzzy, the "list" gets blurry. I get desensitized to things. Half the time I don't think twice.

If I stop and listen, I sense Him challenging me to stop and LOOK. His Spirit wants to enlighten my eyes to His ways, not the Worlds.
You would think seeing my sin nature in a bigger way could cause me to feel burdened, but God has been generous to reveal it by way of seeing His Grace bigger than I had seen before.

Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal. 2 Corinthians 4:16-18