Josiah Road

Replacements

posted by Mike Blackaby 27May

I like to think of myself as a domestically competent person. I have lived on my own long enough to keep myself from starving. I assumed that a dishwasher would be a fairly straightforward test. I was wrong.

My apartment did not have a dishwasher, which forced me to wash my dishes by hand. This was not a task I enjoyed, so the aftermath of my meals tended to settle in my sink for extended periods of time. To avoid this unpleasant task, I would often visit my parents and use their dishwasher. The freedom to simply place a dirty plate in a machine and push a button to clean it was almost too good to be true! However, I soon faced an unforeseen problem; I ran out of detergent.

I began to search frantically for an alternative. Several different cleaners of various sorts crowded the cupboard beneath the sink, yet none of them were adequate. Finally, I came across a bottle of dish soap and breathed a sigh of relief. The soap was in liquid form, while the previous detergent had been a powder, but surely that did not matter. I confidently filled the dispenser, pushed the start button and walked away as the machine hummed to life. Several minutes later I returned to the kitchen, and noticed something peculiar. There was white foam cresting the top of the kitchen island like an ocean’s shore. I ran to the other side and my jaw dropped: soap suds were pouring from the top of the dishwasher and running down to pile on the hardwood floor! The white bubbles framed the machine, giving it a big Santa Claus beard. Having no way to remove the liquid soap from the inside of the appliance, I was forced to spend the next thirty minutes mopping up soapy water. So much for my replacement.

We are all looking for fulfillment. We seek contentment in our relationships, in our work, in our recreation and in every other aspect of our lives. Indeed, there seems to be no area which is unaffected by our need for gratification. But where are we seeking this? The Bible teaches that God not only knows what is best for my life, but wants what is best for my life. However, I often find myself seeking to fulfill my desires apart from God, and it leaves me desperately unsatisfied. This should not surprise me, since we were created to be in a relationship with God. To try and replace that relationship with anything else will not work! Nothing can act as a replacement for God since there is nothing else like Him. When areas in my life seem to be falling apart, it is likely because they are no longer serving their created purpose: to give glory to God through a personal relationship. If I have replaced God with an alternative indulgence, ruin can only be expected.

“…that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death…” Phil. 3:10

Stuck Together

posted by Mike Blackaby 20May

I love road trips. There is something about jumping into a car with your friends and driving into the unknown that pumps adventure through my veins. However, road trips always seem more fun in the beginning. By the ninth hour on the road, things are slightly different. When our church band received an invitation to play music for a weekend, we eagerly agreed. None of us had been to that small northern town, but we had several good friends from the area, and our anticipation increased as our trip drew closer.

Due to our collective lack of finances, we decided to cram the five of us into a Jeep and take only one vehicle. We were so excited for the quest ahead that we failed to ponder what ten and a half hours together might be like. The first couple of hours were filled with laughter and singing, but the longer we drove the more irritable we became. Things that didn’t bother us in hour #2 sparked tempers in hour #7. Eventually, we discovered that the best way to gain any form of artificial privacy was to close our eyes and try to sleep.

However, near the end of our trip, a funny thing began to happen: we started to get along again. After being forced together, we had learned to survive. In fact, we had grown much closer. Our friendships were deeper, and we had a newfound appreciation for each other in ways that did not exist before the journey.

If God commands us to love each other, then why is this so hard sometimes? I think because relationships take work. In the individualistic society of Western culture, it is no wonder we struggle to relate to each other. I often find myself walking through life concerned only for myself. Email, Facebook, and texting have made life much more convenient. We can now control our relationships through technology, and they become far less personal. It puts the power in my hands, and I am hardly ever forced to sit down with a friend face-to-face. One only needs to stand on the sidewalk downtown to observe how little we as human beings acknowledge each other. It is as if we are each surrounded by a personal bubble, letting only a select few in under extreme suspicion, and we have precious little time for strangers. We, as Christians, should not be like this. Love is not individualistic. Love reaches out past the self, even to the point of personal sacrifice. What would our relationships look like if God forced us to take a ten and a half hour car ride together? When faced with no other option but to work out our problems, what healing might take place? Until I let God heal me from my selfishness, I will never love sacrificially.

“You shall not take vengeance, nor bear any grudge against the children of your people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the Lord.” Leviticus 19:18