A New Street

¹³for, "Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved." –Romans 10:13

Please take a minute to read this short modern parable: http://www.emrgnc.com.au/parablehole.htm

This story has been a favorite since I first read it about 12 years ago.  Some are far worse than others, but we all have our own “holes” that we wrestle with.  It seems there are some things that we have to go through over and over and over again before we learn.  How many times do we have to get the same results before we try a different way?

The first time we fall into a deep pit and we know we can’t climb out ourselves, we cry out for God’s help.  He is delighted to help us and we are so thankful.  For a time, our lives are all about telling others about this incredible miracle.  But soon life gets busy.  We skip worship one Sunday because we just have too much to do and then the Sundays begin to add up.  Our lack of worship makes our prayers feel empty, so we quit praying.  Soon our faith is running on empty and we find ourselves back in the hole.  Sometimes we think we can pull ourselves out, so we try, only to find out that there is another, deeper hole waiting.

The good news is, if we call for God’s help, he will be delighted once again to pull us out of that hole.  He knows our tendency to fall into them again and again.  He even knows that we are first going to try to save ourselves.  He waits patiently at the edge of our pit for our call of distress.  He is not going to guide us down that pit-marked street teaching us to avoid the holes.  No, if we insist on that street, he will let us keep falling into holes, hoping we will learn from our bruises.  He is waiting for us to ask him to show us a better street… to leave the old one behind.  He doesn’t want to make our old lives work… he wants to give us brand new lives!  Streets without holes!

Lord Jesus,

Open our eyes to the hole-marked streets we insist upon traveling so that we can find the new path you have prepared for us.  Help us to give up all our old ways that we know just aren’t going to work.  Show us a new way.  Amen.

Joys: Watching Cecelia enjoy herself at her birthday party; Communion; a weekend with lots of family time