Food for Thought Friday: Getting Back On Track

“There is meaning in every journey that is unknown to the traveler.”
― Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Stuck means not going anywhere no matter how much you want to. It means the more you try, the more you get stuck and the more frustrated you get with being stuck. You think you are taking the easier way, but that is never how it turns out, ever.
I have found that the reason I was stuck recently was that I walked off of God's path. I saw where it was going and I didn't like it. I did not think I could possibly handle any more of the mess that laid in wait. I did not think I could possibly wander down the path He was asking me to follow. I stepped aside for a moment, ya know, just to avoid a few of the painful things. That's what we always do. We think we'll just "step aside" or "avoid" the things God has in-store that we don't want to deal with. We are Jonah running away from God. What we end up doing though is creating more heartache and frustration because of our sin than anything else! I'll take self-fulfilling prophecy for $500 Alec.
So, there I was staring down a path I didn't feel ready for. I step off thinking I know better. I end up with animal poo on the bottom of one shoe, mud up to my ankle on the other foot, and a tree branch in the face. Ugh, life. I was stuck, I was unhappy, and there was only one way back. Repentance.
Getting alone with God was something I honestly didn't want to do because I didn't want to hear the answer I knew was coming. Most of the time I think that's why we stay so busy. We can keep our head in the sand and avoid what we know is wrong. But God had promised to refine me and remake me and breathe new life into my dry bones and that's exactly what I needed. So I got alone with Him and I laid my disobedience and muck before Him and there it was; the path I should have taken all along. Just like Jonah, we need that time of silence and aloneness to be with God. We need to be redirected. Sometimes we need to be gently guided back with grace and some of us need to be spit out on the shore to get our rear ends moving.
Don't just come to God in alone time for the "good" stuff. Come to Him for alignment into His will. Come before Him so that nothing is hidden. Come before Him so that nothing in your life is held more precious, more important, or more valuable than His name glorified in all the earth. His plan is my plan. His will is my will. His way is my way and there is no other way. Serving is good. But using our service FOR God instead of our service WITH God as a distraction FROM God is not good. We can never serve in enough ways to make up for sin if we are unwilling to repent. The scripture says "work out your salvation" not work FOR it. If you're still trying to get yourself unstuck, stop. If you are still running around crazy so that you don't have to stop and face the music with your Maker, stop. If it's simply been too long since you spent quiet time with your Father, stop. There is absolutely NOTHING more important than your time with Him. Eternity is spent with Him, so it seems pretty important. If you don't work on that relationship now, that might be kind of awkward later, just saying. If your motto is like mine "I run off a steady diet of caffeine and avoiding the issues", it's time to stop it. Get alone, get it out in the open, get it right.