“Seek the Lord while you can find him.
Call on him now while he is near.”

Isaiah 55:6

Whenever my dad wanted to make a point to us, he would always begin his discussion with the line, “There are two kinds of people in the world…”  and then he would adapt his story to whatever point he was trying to make – one kind of person doing the wrong things, and the other doing the right.

When it comes to home maintenance, there are two kinds of people in the world:  the ones who take care of things as they occur; and those that let things pile up until they can’t stand it any more and are forced to do something.  I am, and probably always will be, the latter.

I am a procrastinator of the worst kind.  Until I am in a crisis, I normally let things go.  For example, yesterday I found my purchase receipts from Christmas in a big pile on my desk.  They were only a few inches from my file box, but for some reason, I hadn’t found the 15 seconds of free time it would have taken to file them over the past 3 months.

Or let’s look at my garage.  I am going to spend all of Spring Break cleaning out my garage.  You are probably thinking, “Oh it won’t take that long.”  Since it has been 8 YEARS since the last cleaning, I am pretty sure it will be a 5-day event.  It just hasn’t been a priority until now that I can’t walk through it.

Now, before you folks of the other side begin to break out in hives, let’s take the focus off cleaning for a minute.  I believe that this principle is true for our spiritual lives too.  As good as it is to maintain a daily prayer and devotional life, I know sometimes we slowly let those disciplines slip away from us.  Normally this occurs when we are so busy with normal life.  We promise ourselves that we will “get to it later,” but later rarely comes.  And one day we wake up and realize our relationship with the Lord has been on the back burner for months.

And much like living in chaos within our home, our souls are out of sorts.  There is a tension we can’t really describe and there is an underlying sense of anxiety, or lack of peace, that we experience.  This is a crisis of spirit, and it drives us to do something now.

May I challenge you to view the coming week, Holy Week, as a time to re-connect with God?  Maybe you felt some peace and joy at Christmas, but it has slowly eroded?  This week is an excellent time to regain a sense of His presence and to reflect on His love for you.  It is a time to start over and get back on the right path.

Beginning on Monday, I plan to begin a daily meditation that follows Jesus from His triumphal entry into Jerusalem all the way to the cross on Friday morning.  If you are feeling out of sorts in your spiritual connectedness, I hope you will consider journeying with me for a few days.  In these coming days, I hope to find my center again.  I would love for us to do it together.

Grace to you my friends.

Heavenly Father,

Forgive me for pushing You aside in the busyness of everyday life.  In Your faithfulness, You have not forsaken me.  Instead Your grace keeps You close, even when I don’t recognize it.  Help me to find my way back to You.  Help me to find my center again.

In the name of my Savior I pray,

Amen