Good morning! How many people are missing that extra hour of sleep from this past weekend? We did our best to not be affected by the time change by going to bed an hour before we normally would. Josh wasn’t too happy about it, but I always tell him that it is my responsibility to do what’s best for him. Don’t get me wrong – I hate it when we have to turn the clocks ahead one hour, BUT I love gaining that extra hour of sunlight the following night. It also gets me excited that spring and summer are right around the corner!
When it comes to stuff like this, I am the type of person that has to be mentally prepared. It’s not that I can’t do it without preparing mentally, but it definitely throws me off and takes some time for me to process what just happened and how to rebound.
I am reminded of the times when I was on standby for work. We would go through a weekly rotation and were required to be available at any time (night or day) throughout the course of that week. My life would totally shut down for that week! I could not get anything started, because I was so preoccupied with, “what happens if I get called?”
There were some weeks when I didn’t receive one call to respond, but had “wasted” the whole week just in case. You can look at this in one of two ways: BEING PREPARED or BEING PREOCCUPIED
It was important for me to be PREPARED because I had to have a separate vehicle whenever we went to a family member’s house to hang, or enough sleep in case I got called and was out all night.
Looking back, the fact that I allowed standby to PREOCCUPY my life for the week was absolutely insane. It stopped me from doing so many things and kept me close to home, with the fear of not being able to respond right away.
Sometimes in life, we like to tell ourselves that we are PREPARING for something, because it sounds better than, we are so PREOCCUPIED with something that it stops us from doing anything else. Now, I am not minimizing the importance of being prepared in different situations, but when we allow the situation to preoccupy our mind and stop us from moving forward, it becomes a problem.
The danger that comes with this is that we begin to lie to ourselves so that we do not feel the full effect of the choice we made. When you begin to lie to yourself about something you have said or done, it only makes things worse.
In Exodus 32, we see the Israelites are being impatient as their leader, Moses, was up on Mt. Sinai meeting with God. Moses was up on the mountain for a long time and so the people went to Aaron, Moses’s brother, and said to him, “Come, make us gods who will go before us. As for this fellow Moses who brought us up out of Egypt, we don’t know what has happened to him.” (Exodus 32:1b)
It doesn’t seem that Aaron had to think about it for a minute because he answered them and told them to gather their gold and bring it to him. Look what it says Aaron did in verse 4.
“He took what they handed him and made it into an idol cast in the shape of a calf, fashioning it with a tool.”
Exodus 32:4
The people began to worship the idol as the “god” who brought them up out of Egypt. God, seeing their wickedness and rebellion, tells Moses to go down and leave Him so that He could destroy the people because of what they had done. But Moses sought favor from the Lord and reminded Him of His covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob to make their descendants a great nation and give them the land He had promised.
The Lord heard Moses’s cry and did not bring disaster among the people. Moses went down to the camp and addressed his brother, Aaron – “What did these people do to you, that you led them into such great sin?”
Don’t miss this next part, this is the part where if we are not careful, we find ourselves doing the same thing. Aaron answers his brother.
“I told them, Whoever has any gold jewerly, take it off. Then they gave me the gold, and I threw it into the fire, and out came this calf!”
Exodus 32:24
Did you catch it? We are told that Aaron fashioned the calf with a tool, but in his response he tells Moses that it came out of the fire like that!
We have to choose to be honest with ourselves, instead of allowing ourselves to fool us into thinking we are justified. When we make a mistake it is OK (and actually better) to take responsibility and move forward trying our best to learn from our mistakes.
For the last few years of being on the standby rotation, I finally allowed myself to LIVE LIFE during the week instead of being held hostage by the job. I was still prepared, I was still responsible, but I did not allow my mind to be preoccupied with the “what if.”
What is one thing in your life that you are allowing yourself to be “preoccupied” with, in the facade of being “prepared” or whatever word you want to fill in the blank with?
- Is it stopping you from following Jesus?
- Is it stopping you from letting go of something that doesn’t honor God?
The Bible tells us that Jesus is the Way, the TRUTH, and the life! When we know Jesus, we will know the truth. We will be able to be honest with ourselves as He gently exposes our deception with His truth!
“Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”
John 8:32
Heavenly Father, thank You for being a constant source of truth! Your Word provides wisdom and guidance in every area of our lives. Help us to search Your Word continually, be honest as we examine ourselves, and allow ourselves to BE TRANSFORMED by You! In Jesus Name – AMEN!
Be Transformed 