Oh Lord, show us how to live. Something beyond directions from Your Word. Something real. Something tangible. This world around us calls us to ease when You have such other plans for us. It’s not that we don’t want to follow You. In the morning, that path is so clear, so full of Your Glory and Praise, so brilliant and right.
But by the end of the day, these feet have grown weary and these eyes are weak. I know the path, the way to go, the what to do, but…
In the name of family I spent the night, like last night and the night before that playing video games with my grandson. We laughed. We joked. The internet connected us like nothing before its time ever did, ever thought of doing. But this internet, these games have distracted me from Your way, Your Purpose. I explain in my defense: it is for and out of love that I spend this time with him. Love and family and community…isn’t that Christianity in action?
But that’s my defense, not the way the day should end. I know. Because as soon as I shut down the xbox, I run to you and repent. Why would I repent unless deep down under I knew it was not what You had in mind. By the time I get home, doing nothing or next to nothing seems the only way to go. At the least, it is the easiest. Maybe tomorrow, I justify. But tomorrow will be like today, like yesterday, like the day before that. I know.
It is not an original problem. Paul wrote about doing what he didn’t want to do and not doing what he was doing. But Paul gave no solution to it.
“Alas for those who lie on beds of ivory, and lounge on their couches, and eat the lambs from the flock, and calves from the stall; who sing idle songs to the sound of the harp, and like David improvise on instruments of music; who drink wine fro bowls, and anoint themselves with the finest of oils, but are not grieved over the ruin of Joseph! Therefore they shall now be the first to go into exile, and the revelry of the loungers shall pass away.” (Amos)
Is there no help for us whose hearts are in the right place but our bodies and minds just never seem to follow? You said to love You with our whole heart and our whole mind, and our whole body. But how?