About that....

Every now and then I get a wild hair and I clean out closets, rearrange my office shelves, or just generally go through stuff and de-clutter. Amazing the things I find buried in my back rooms and upon shelves, pushed far into the back unreachable spaces. I have often re-found something that I had been missing for quite some time and determined to make a place for it at the edge of the shelf instead of the dusty back.

Come to think of it, I do that with God. It's natural, I suppose, that when things are clicking along and doing well I tend to keep God up in His space on the shelf. I can handle these little things, I think. I keep Him up there until it gets dire and I feel strangled, arms tied to my sides, afraid to move at all, lest the binding get even tighter. Then, and only then, do I reach up to that shelf and bring my Lord down to where I am, begging Him to free me from the mess I have created.

Is that really how God wants me to be? Keeping my Christianity compartmentalized and tidy, only bringing Him out when it's convenient or when I deem it necessarily urgent enough? I know that is not true. God wants to be in my life continually. He wants to sit at my side, not be locked away on a shelf somewhere. He created me to be a companion to Him, to walk with Him, to share my desires, my needs and my thoughts with Him. God rejoices in the times I ask for Him to guide me and to complete the tasks I know I cannot. He desires my fellowship and He celebrates in earnest when I choose Him as my confidante and companion.

So how then do I take action and remove God from the dark and dusty closet to the foreground of my everyday life? This is where the rubber meets the road, and that road can get pretty darned bumpy so you might want to buckle up!

I think you know what to insert here... Prayer. Yup, broken record here, but it is a very valid point. Prayer is the first thing I can immediately insert into my day in order to keep God in the foreground. I don't mean that I walk around with my eyes in continuous closure, or mumbling to myself. I mean I pray in my thoughts. I attempt to keep an ongoing dialog with my Father as if I were talking to myself about all the things I have to do today. I find that God chooses at times to rearrange my schedule around His purposes if I do that. He gets the things done on His agenda and His timeline, not necessarily my own. Sometimes they coincide and I too get to check off items from my to-do list.

Second, resist the urge to reserve certain instances for conference with God and keep other things firmly in the realm of the World. The instant I do that, I am reaching up to shelve my Savior and tie His hands. God will not intrude upon me to force me to listen to Him. He has his ways of rattling that shelf, but if I choose not to open the door and take Him down, He will not force me. As I have said before, God wants me to CHOOSE Him. In making that choice I am telling Jesus that I trust Him.

Thirdly, I have to remember to take at least three deep breaths when I am upset before I respond to anything. During those three deep breaths I can ask the Father to guide me, the Holy Spirit to give me words and Jesus to give me compassion for the other person. Even when I am not upset that would be an awesome practice to get into... Can you imagine how many careless words would go unspoken if only we could do that simple exercise? Remember, simple, not easy!

Last, I have to constantly picture God sitting patiently in my living room waiting on my return. I mean no disrespect in this manner. What I am trying to visualize is the fact that the Father WANTS my company. He doesn't need me, He is God, after all. He WANTS me. That is a powerful picture and concept to get my mind around. If I truly had a physical representation of Christ sitting in my living room, would I really ask Him to leave the room while I dealt with some stuff? I don't think so! Would I keep God waiting if I knew he was sitting in my living room, wanting to talk with me? Absolutely not! However, when I don't pray, when I compartmentalize my Christianity, when I respond in haste I am passing by my Lord who is waiting on me to choose to come to Him. He holds every answer to every question I could think to ask. Whether He will indulge me enough to answer any given inquiry is His prerogative, it's my simple job to be available and open to listening to what He has to say.