No Shortcuts

I am the queen of shortcuts. If there's a way to do it faster, more efficiently, I wanna find it. I do not believe in wasting time. If I can multi-task, I'm gonna. If I can carry it in one trip, you'd better believe I'm not making two. Some people say it's because I'm a hard worker, but really, it's because I like free time. I like being able to play on the computer, or veg in front of NCIS reruns, or enjoy a spontaneous night of fun with friends. But, those things are really only enjoyable when I know my work is done.

The problem with this overall attitude toward life comes in to play when whenever a matter requires discipline. There are no shortcuts for sound discipline in life. There are no shortcuts to a healthy body. There are no shortcuts to a well-fed mind. There are no shortcuts to a life of integrity. There are no shortcuts to a Spirit-filled life. We must do the work to gain the prize.

This week, our church studied Ezra 3, and the story of the laying of the foundation for the rebuilding of the temple, and I was reminded of a vision the Lord gave me several years ago. It was during a season of great loss in my life. I had experienced loss through death, loss through broken relationship, and loss through physical distance over and over again in the span of a few short months. My spirit felt stripped and barren. During that time, I was lying in bed, working on the courage to face that day, when the Lord painted a picture for me of a foundation slab. Cold. Gray. Boring. Straight. Solid. Firm. Unshakable.

It was as though He was showing me that He had to strip my life down to the barest essentials, show me how solid my foundation in Him was, so that He could begin building other things into my life atop that. Last week, someone was talking to me about ways that we, as humans, tend to hide from the things we'd rather not face. She listed shopping, eating, busyness, work, etc. And, somewhere in the middle of all that she listed "religion." I think I know what she meant, but everything in my cried out against that at the same time. You see, I confess, I've been known to treat myself to a little retail therapy or brownie therapy, to book my calendar in such a way that there wasn't time to think about anything that might hurt, or to lose myself in work in such a way that made me unavailable to others. But, what she called "religion," my relationship with Jesus Christ, is no game. When all else is stripped away, He remains, faithful. I have searched the depths and found Him there.

All of those other things, those are shortcuts. And, every so often, because of His great love for me, He blows through my life with gale force, sweeping away anything not securely fastened to that Foundation. Sometimes, there's very little left. Oh, but even in those times, He is enough.

In this new season of my life, a new year, a new decade of life, the seeds of a new ministry being planted in my heart, I am increasingly committed to not taking shortcuts. As I build, I want to do it slowly, carefully, making sure that every structure is securely fastened to my immutable Savior.