FROM THE PASTOR
January 29, 2017
We’ve developed a rather large crack in our sidewalk just before you step onto the porch. It started about 3 years ago as the finest of hairline cracks. I didn’t pay too much attention to it at that point, it was one of those “out of sight, out of mind” situations. I knew it was there, but who sweats the little things in life?
Last year it opened up more and I noticed it more. Yet it was close enough to the porch we just stepped over it and still didn’t pay it much attention. That compounded my mistake. But again, who has time for the little things in life?
This year is different though. I really notice it when I blow snow for the first time this winter. My clearest clue that it had progressed more than I realized was the bone jarring “thump” as I rammed it with the self-propelled snow blower. If I had false teeth (I don’t) but, if I did, I would have had to fish them out of the snowbank. My initial thought was “Wow, it sure was easy to not sweat the little things in life”. My second thought… “It’s going to be a real pain to make it right again.”
I’ve found that true in my spiritual walk too. It sure is easy not to sweat missing my prayer or quite time because other things grab my attention. Other ‘things’ just seem to have a higher priority. After all, the ‘cracks’ in our spiritual lives also start out as just fine hairline ones too... and, we convince ourselves, they won’t make much difference for right now. We can ‘fix’ it later. But time has a way of causing the crack to widen, we get used to it and the ‘fix’ becomes progressively more difficult.
Understand, that fine hairline crack in my sidewalk was just enough to allow the moisture to creep its way into the concrete. Once in, as the trials of cold weather came, that moisture then turned to ice. Ice expands as it freezes and took advantage of being ‘inside’ the sidewalk to push the concrete up. That’s why I finally had that bone jarring ‘thump’. The crack had progressed to the point I needed to fix it or face repeated jarring reminders that the damage will only get worse without corrective action.
God’s Word tells us that the moment we recognize that something in our spiritual lives is starting to ‘crack’ we should immediately fix it. If we don’t the fix only becomes that much more difficult to correct.
If only I had fixed the crack while it was still small, it would have been an easy repair. Now… well now it’s a replace project. God provides the means and the wisdom for corrective action in our spiritual lives if we only seek it.
Thank You for your faithfulness! Pastor Larry
