Lesson From the Past
“But be very careful to keep the commandments and the law that Moses the servant of the LORD gave you: To love the LORD your God, to walk in all his ways, to obey his commands, to hold fast to him and to serve him with all your heart and all your soul.” –Joshua 22:5
I was doing some cleaning in my garage today and came across a bunch of old stuff that has traveled the country with me. Some of the stuff is memoirs of past relationships. Some of the stuff is old 3.5″ floppy disks (remember those? I don’t even have a place to put them on this computer). Some of the stuff is just stuff, junk that meant something at one point in my life but is now just junk. Most of this stuff ended up in the trash bin, some of it wasn’t junk, and some of it caused me some deep reflection.
The above scripture verse was one of the things that I kept. It is written on a note card that was intended for me to carry around and memorize. I can’t help but be humbled and repentant when I meditate on this verse. Above all else, I am to be a person that loves God, obeys his commands, and serve him with everything I’ve got. If I’m honest with myself and with you, I must say that I have failed time and again at most of this. I don’t have it all together, I don’t always do what God tells me to do, nor do I always serve him with everything I’ve got. I’ve disobeyed, I’ve done enough ‘just to get by’, and I’ve rejected God on numerous occasions. I can tell you, however, that I’ve never been more resolved to hold fast to God, to serve him with everything I’ve got and everything I’m not, and most importantly to love God more than anything else.
As ‘consolation’ to you and condemnation to me, I am FAR SHORT of what God wants me to be. But as consolation to both of us, we can rest in God’s grace.
This side of eternity, we will never be perfect, but I like to believe I am taking TWO STEPS FORWARD and only one step back.