Then Don’t Do That

I think my all-time favorite child-ism is when they tell me, “It hurts when I do this!”  My inevitable answer, “Then don’t do that!”  The lack of logic in children can be funny sometimes.

As we get older the lack of logic can become painful though.  How many of us do the same thing in relationships?  It hurts when I get in this kind of relationship.  Or, it hurts when I use something, (busyness, food, substances) to cover up what is really going on inside me.  Or, one that is very familiar to me, it hurts when I try to control everything.  Maybe we shouldn’t be in the relationship; maybe we need to stop and give God the circumstance that is causing discomfort; and maybe we should give control to God.

It is hard work to get out of an emotional rut.  It takes a lot of courage to stop doing the familiar and try something new.  The fear of trying and failing can be absolutely paralyzing.  Sometimes we can’t seem to make a change until what we are currently doing hurts so bad that we just have to stop.

I am a control freak by nature, (my sinful nature) and I work every day to give that part of me over to God.  Some days I am more successful at it than others, but the great thing is God’s grace is new for me every morning, in fact it is new every minute.

There is a story about a person walking down the street and falling into a hole.  The next day they walk down the street, but walk around the hole.  The next day they decide to simply walk down a different street altogether.  I hope this is where we can all get to in our lives, making a positive, conscious decision to try something different even though it might scare us to death.

“Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past.  See, I am doing a new thing!  Now it springs up; do you not perceive it?  I am making a way in the desert and streams in the wasteland.”  Isaiah 43:18-19