Some Days Are Harder Than Others

An article by Jason    No Comments

Today was kind of a tough day. Not necessarily because anything really bad happened, but because I was busy.

Yup, I was busy. Busy with stuff, work, work, and more work. I let all the regular day distractions keep me from spending the time I now need in my new relationship with God. I’ve been so focused lately on that relationship being my priority, that just one “off” day really throws me for a loop.

In the morning I’ve been reading “A Purpose Driven Life“. You may have heard of it or even have read it before. If you haven’t read it, I would highly recommend it. It does light a little fire under you and really gets right to the point. Anyway, I wasn’t able to finish my normal reading this morning and had to leave early for work.

I’m lucky enough to drive along the river on my way into work and the last couple months, I have designated that one of my prayer times. I know I’m not supposed to do this in a car (because I am not 100% focused on God), but it’s pretty light on traffic and the scenery is delightful. There’s mist coming off of the water and tree’s hugging the road. So I spend the first part of my drive praying. By the time I start hitting the traffic part of my drive, I’ve usually timed it right and am done. So I then turn on some tunes. Something like Carlos Whittaker. It has some creative melodies, nice guitars, and good vocals, I’d check it out.

So I’m not sure if I’ve already said this in my last few posts, but I’ve been pushing myself all day to talk to and think about Jesus. I literally have an on-going conversation with Him as often as I can, and sing some praise tunes in my head to keep me on target. I really feel like the more I think about Jesus and His words, it helps me feel peaceful and calm. It keeps me from going back to the old “ego me” where I was the one in control.

But today was so focused conference calls and endless meetings and I didn’t carve out time to talk to Him. As the day progressed, I was so wrapped up in what I was doing that I didn’t even notice. By the end of the day when I got home, I felt different, just kinda “off”. I caught myself getting frustrated with my kids right away. Then, it hit me like, just a baseball bat. I suddenly realized that my day was given to other things and not Him. I never made the necessary time to really focus on what is really important.

After dinner we got the little dudes ready for bed. I had a good prayer with Wilder (my son). During the prayer I asked God…

“Please give my children stronger faith than I have.

Please let them know you better than I do.

Please do not wait 30 something years and help guide them.

Please Lord take them over as soon as you can.

I really believe they will be great and powerful servants for you.”

Then, as my son continued to giggle about something in the room, I also proceeded to tell him that God did in fact have a sense of humor. Now, I can’t really guarantee that I guess, but if He made us in His image, and I love to laugh, then He must be a pretty funny God. Or at least have a darn good sense of humor.

After the lights were out I came downstairs and finished reading the devotional I had only half read this morning. I told my wife what I’d been missing throughout my day, and now, here I am typing away. Once I’m done, I’m going to do a little reading from the Bible.

Hopefully this will be the kind of day that doesn’t happen very often. However, I do know that I am the only one causing the problem here. I’m the one who lets myself get too caught up in “stuff”.

Lately, I feel like I’ve been running a race and Jesus is the finish line. I know I’ll have to stop and get water, stretch some, I might get lost a little, and even fall and get hurt, but at least I know where I want to go and who I need to Trust to get me there.

PS – My son didn’t really believe me about God being “funny”