April 22--What to Do When You're Wandering

It was one of those mornings--I'd skipped my usual routine to save time, but then couldn't get going.  I finally hit restart and picked up my Bible, and I found just what I needed in Joshua 24, Luke 21:1-19, Psalm 90, and Proverbs 13:20-22.

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Eve reads her Bible journal aloud on this episode.

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Transcript

Joshua 24

Luke 21:1-19

Psalm 90, Prayer, Proverbs 13:20-22

SPEAKER_00 0:00

April twenty two What to do when you're wandering I won't be reading the scripture references for those please check the written post Small welcome voices in the wee hours have greeted and distracted me for most of the week. I haven't done my usual reading and writing. I feel off in general, and I don't want to dive back into my Bible this morning. Our daughter and her family have been with us, and I can't help but notice the crusted over way I'm feeling the I can't save the world, so why write one more word attitude? I'm wondering, and what I know to do is pray and open my Bible because this is the path whether or not I actually feel like doing it. The value of God and his words don't depend on what I think or write about them, thank goodness. God is God, whether or not I happen to love him best or even like him in this moment. Oddly, it's this tiny piece of truth that steadies me most when I'm floundering. If God is really God for me, I'll surrender my independence to do a dozen other things that look more interesting to me this morning. I have to tell you it's like walking through mud and weighted boots to sit down and open my Bible, but I'll slog through because I'm counting on God to show up. See if you agree that he does. The Old Testament chapter is Joshua twenty four. What do you do when you're at the finish line and your life is nearly over? You gather up your people and tell them what's most important, like where they came from, who they are, and what matters most going forward. This is what Joshua does just before he dies. He calls together all the people of Israel, plus their elders, chiefs, and leaders, and addresses everybody with the very same message. He reminds them that God chose Abraham their forefather to build a nation through, and in his kindness God rescued them from slavery in Egypt and from war against their enemies ever since, and he gave them a fertile land they didn't earn, full of towns they didn't build, quote, and here you are now living in them and eating from vineyards and olive groves you did not plant. It's time to thank God for what he's done for them, and Joshua tells them two ways to do it. One is to fear God and worship him in wholehearted devotion, and two is to get rid of the gods their ancestors worshipped and worship God only. In just one verse Joshua summarizes the first two of the Ten Commandments, which are to worship God with all they've got and not to worship idols. But Joshua takes it a step further. He says that now is the time to choose who they'll worship. Today is the day to decide who is God for them. He presses them to make their decision about God right then, not put it off for one day in the future. After all, they know the stories, they've experienced the miracles, they've witnessed God's provision and protection, so Joshua says, quote, choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, end quote. Why is he pressing them? Because the truth is all they have is today. It's all any of us has. We can't go back and choose a day in the past to believe, and we can't choose a day on the horizon either. Chances are, if we're not choosing God today, we won't choose him then either. We've only got the moment we're in right now to decide for God or not. Worshiping God wholeheartedly is something we must continue to choose. We can't depend on the wonderful sermon we heard last week or the large check we donated last month or the decision we made at a youth retreat to be enough. The decision to love God first and most is an every single day sort of choice that eventually adds up to a lifetime. The way Joshua states it, the choice is very clear, isn't it? And maybe that goes without saying, but after the morning I've just had taking myself in hand just to open my Bible and talk to God, I can't help but notice that Joshua doesn't give them a third choice, which is that they can't choose not to worship. The not to worship choice isn't on Josh's docket. There are only two either worship God or worship a made up God idol. Who would choose the idol when it's put like that? It's like asking what would you rather do, believe truth or believe lies, find success or find failure, live or die. Like duh, isn't the choice obvious? But we modern people looking for a way around two choices we don't like might craft a third, something like okay, well I won't worship anything then. It's my life. I get to choose, and I choose not to worship anything. But not to worship is not a choice. We were made to worship, so worship is what we will do, no matter how we might resolve not to do it. God made us this way, and there's no getting around it. The team, the job, the child, the house, the spouse, the drink, the drug, the plug, the device, you name it. We'll find a way to worship it. There's simply no escaping worship. It's hardwired in us like breathing and sweating, thirsting and hungering, and as created human beings we will live as we are designed to live. We will always worship something. In His love God lets us choose what we will worship. But the choice is never will you worship God or will you not worship at all? The choice is will you worship God over every other thing that you want to be God for you and isn't? Or will you worship what isn't? This is very different, because from the outset, we see that this other thing, every other thing in fact, isn't a choice at all, at least not one that a sane person would make. I mean, what sound minded person would choose to worship nothingness? So will I choose to wander my own way, trying out all the choices of things to worship, wondering why I feel lost and empty? Or will I surrender to God as the only choice to worship and live my life in thankful service for what he's done? Wandering versus serving, wasting life versus living it, being foolish versus being wise. You and I get to choose, and the choice is very serious, but it's also so very obvious, it's sort of silly, isn't it? I can't see what's ahead for me, all the troubles, the joys, the heartbreaks, the slam dunks, but God does, and as I live into the life that's coming, I see how worshiping God alone means that I get to enjoy every single day knowing He's got me, knowing He's got what's next, knowing He's working out every single thing for my good. Who wouldn't choose God with this kind of guarantee? While an idol might promise the moon and stars, none can deliver them with a guarantee so extraordinary. By this afternoon I saw what had become obvious and I lay down all the things that have been clamoring for my attention, which are these in order of their appeal if you're interested, helping a friend plan a baking business, baking my own bread, scheduling my summer around grandkids and friends, picking up the house from the grandkids' visit, setting out ant baits and the call I need to make to Orchin, brushing out Lovey's lumpy fur coat, cleaning up the dirty rug, the dirty diapers, the dirty litter box, and I picked up my Bible and opened it, which was about as enjoyable at first as that cat box, and I asked God to walk me out of the swirling chaos where I was, where every other thing looked so much more interesting than he did. And I forced myself to read this chapter in Joshua, which, I have to tell you, has been the most tender setup God's ever given me. Choose me, I hear, or think, or think I hear, and in my mind's eye I see God's hand waving wildly in the back of a big auditorium where idols of all shapes and sizes are propped up in theater chairs, leaning this way and that and all dead silent. And a question comes to me, look around, is there a God you'd rather serve than me? Heck no, I answer my heart squeezing. When you're wandering, open your heart, your time and your Bible, and choose the God who loves you right where you are. The New Testament passage is Luke twenty one to nineteen. Gulp There's serious doomsday news here, and the long and short of it is that if you're trusting Jesus, he says, quote, not to worry about it, end quote. Here's the skinny. In the days before Jesus returns, doomsday deceivers will come and claim they're the big deal, but don't fall for them. Wars and rebellions will come, but don't fret about these either. This is routine and not a sign of the end. Natural disasters will happen like earthquakes and famines. You'll even think the sky is falling. Things will go from bad to worse on earth, and before all this, Christians can count on being persecuted for their faith, even by their own family members. But quote, make up your mind right now not to worry about it, end quote, Jesus says. He'll give you the words you need to defend yourself. And the even better news is this, nothing that matters about you can be harmed or lost, quote. Every detail of your body and soul, even the hairs of your head is in my care, end quote. By standing firm you'll be saved, not sorry. If your sky is falling and you're tempted to wander, find comfort in the fact that God holds you and will never let you go. From Psalm ninety. Moses writes this psalm and says that before earth was made and since forever afterwards God is our home, which is a cozy way to think of God. But God has the power to mow us down in the dust we came from and to raise up new grass alive and vibrant in our places. This metaphor's not so cozy. God's anger is fearsome. He can put us quote at the end of our rope, end quote. He keeps track of our sins in his book. I'm feeling decidedly uncomfy. What's more, Moses says, our lives are nothing but quote, toil and trouble and a marker in the graveyard, end quote. We get seventy or eighty years if we're lucky, which is surprisingly true, given the latest life expectancy chart. This news is sliding only one way, and it's downhill. What do we do with so much hard truth? This is exactly what Moses asks, and then he answers it too. Ask God to teach you to live wisely and well, to turn toward you and treat you kindly, to fill you up, quote, with his unfailing love, end quote. I can't help but notice that God does all the action here. He teaches us, he turns toward us, he fills us, and what we do is we let him quote, let the loveliness of our Lord our God rest on us, end quote. What we most need after all is said and done is God's presence with us. When you're wandering, keep making contact. God is always there listening and loving you. God thank you for holding me close and never letting me go, even when I let go of you, and for rounding me up and bringing me home. In Jesus' name, so be it. From Proverbs thirteen, twenty to twenty-two. Wise walk with wise, while fools flounder with other fools. Crises trap bad guys, but God loving good guys get good lives. They pass their wealth on to their grandkids, who wind up with the wicked's luke too. Passages in Joshua, Luke, Psalms, and Proverbs are selected for today in the yearly Bible. This is Eve de Bartleban Roebuck.