Revelation in Target

I have been very distracted from God recently!  I can't put my finger on just one thing that has driven me to distraction, but I can tell you it has not been fun losing connection with my Father and my Lord Jesus.  And the longer I stay away, the more lost I feel, the more distorted my view of who God is becomes.

Interestingly, I'm sure God knew that this might happen if I wasn't more careful, because I believe he warned me about it.  I was in Target, and I found myself aimlessly walking through the aisles and looking at EVERYTHING, even though I didn't need any of it.  Nothing necessarily wrong with doing some "window shopping" every once in a while, but all of the sudden I heard this phrase in my head like a caption beneath the cartoon of what I was doing: "She wandered from the faith."

"What?!?"  I stopped in my tracks, looked around wide-eyed and high-tailed it back to find my husband, thinking "I don't want to wander!"

But since then, that's what I have done without realizing it.  I didn't guard my morning time in the Word.  I let myself be too tired to stay awake in the morning, and allowed my mind to run around me in circles like a tiny, excited dog so that I could not concentrate on the Lord even if I were awake enough to do so.  I haven't kept it a priority to be in touch with my amazing Christian friends who encourage me and point me to the truth.  I stopped blogging, which really helps me work through things with God sometimes.  I have hardly prayed.  I didn't even want to go to church this Sunday (but I did because my husband made me, bless him).

I'm not listing all of those things to make myself feel worse, but because I think those are the keys.  My man and I listened to a teaching last night that addressed these things, which really brought into focus the causes of my current spiritual distress.  I definitely recommend you set aside some time to listen to it,* but I'll tell you that the suggestions (based on the Parable of the Sower) were to build godly, spiritual habits into your life, and to do whatever it takes to rearrange your life so that you can and do put God and our Lord Jesus Christ first.

Needless to say, I will be scrambling to restore my Father to his rightful place.  I'm beyond thankful that he hasn't, nor will he ever give up on me when I wander, and that Christ did what it took so I don't have to ever EARN God's love and acceptance.

*You can find the teaching at truthortradition podcasts - it is the February 2012 teaching of the month called "The Parable of the Sower" by John Schoenheit.