too busy with the measuring stick
I have an annoying habit in school zones. I focus way too long on the speedometer and only occasionally glance up at the road ahead of me.
When I was a fairly new driver, I got a hefty speeding ticket in a school zone, and ever since I've been overly cautious when I enter them. Cautious to the point of being unsafe. I tend to keep my eyes and my thoughts on keeping that speedometer under 20 instead of on the very children the law was meant to protect.
As I ponder my relationship with Christ and my Christian walk, I tend to go through phases where my gauge...not my Savior...is the center of attention. I convince myself that keeping the law or being the best list follower is the ultimate pursuit in the life of the Christ follower.
But it leaves me dry.
You see, God didn't create me with a list-shaped void in my heart, but a God-shaped one that only my relationship with Him can fill. In the same way that those children need to be the center of attention when I enter their zone, God, and not the man-made rules that have been assembled around Him, need to be at the center of my purpose in life. Otherwise, I begin to deify the list. I begin to measure those around me according to my list instead of simply loving and valuing them.
Our hope lies in a Savior, not in an ever-increasing list of "dos" and "don'ts". Let's pursue a relationship with the One who loved us enough to save us, and leave the lists behind. He is worthy of our attention without the clutter of a man-conceived measuring stick.
Photography: Manu Mohan, manumohan.com