When I Wasn’t Looking (10/20/2023)

This morning, as I sat down at my desk to write, it hit me. My desk looks like a debris field. When did this happen? How did this happen. I knew I was the only one to blame; I do not have trolls who messy things up when I’m away. It was all on me. I spotted the paper on the top of one pile and remembered telling myself, I’ll get to that later. I realized that was behind a lot of what was lying about. And a little voice whispered in my head, “It’s later.”

I promise that is at the top of my list right after I write my blog. But it got me to thinking about how easy it is in our lives to tell ourselves “I’ll take care of that later.” Later, as we all know, can be a real slippery slope. We can see the impact of it on our lives in moments like mine this morning at my desk. But it can also occur in our spiritual lives, and that’s much more difficult to spot but has more lasting impacts.

The difficult thing about the spiritual journey is that there are no deadlines. We modern era folks work around deadlines. We don’t miss them, but few of us tackle tasks early. Without a deadline, without someone knowing we didn’t take time to pray today, we may find ourselves lost spiritually. Without a test to check our progress, we may go weeks without reading scripture; without the need to turn in our service hours, we may find that we haven’t gone out of ourselves to help another in ages.

Indeed, the spiritual life requires real discipline. I guess that is why those of us who are trying to make our way are called disciples. We try to keep our eye on our LORD and Savior, to walk in His footsteps, but it is so very easy to get distracted, to think to ourselves, “I’ll do it later.” But do we? Do we come back to it. Do we get ourselves back on the path, on Christ’s Way?

The spiritual life requires a real dedication to the regimen of prayer, study, and service. It requires us to show up daily, as surely as the LORD causes the sun to rise. Let us commit to being as faithful of followers as Christ our Savior calls us to be.

Until tomorrow, let us all love well.