2001-10-12 - Check Your Route

Ezekiel 37:4-6 (RSV) Again he said to me, "Prophesy to these bones, and say to them, 'O dry bones, hear the word of the LORD.' Thus says the Lord GOD to these bones: 'Behold, I will cause breath to enter you, and you shall live. And I will lay sinews upon you, and will cause flesh to come upon you, and cover you with skin, and put breath in you, and you shall live.'"

Last week, I was driving along a rural interstate on the way to the beach. The road stretched monotonously in front of me. With the unchanging scenery of farm fields, pine trees and four lanes of pavement, I began to daydream and to drive on "autopilot." You know how that is; you suddenly arrive somewhere and don't remember how you made it there.

Then I thought, "aren't we like that sometimes in our spiritual lives?" We read the same Bible at the same time every day (at least we should be reading it daily!). We pray the same prayers too often; we sing the same songs at church. And the songs etc. in themselves can be very edifying - but not if we just sing by rote, from memory, and don't really mean the words.

Sometimes we need to take a different route in our spiritual lives: Buy a new version of the Bible to give a fresh perspective. Sing some new songs or really pray about the words and think about them as we sing them. Read some inspring, thought-provoking Christian books, e.g. by C.S. Lewis or Philip Yancey. Subscribe to a solid, in-depth magazine like "Discipleship Journal," which provides Bible studies in each issue.

If your spiritual life is dry, ask God to breathe life into the dead bones of your faith walk. And do something about it, yourself. I would be interested to hear about your experiences.

Jan

 jan@cfdevotionals.org
http://www.cfdevotionals.org