Pat Maulsen Stands at the Crossroads

I realized that I have been slacking hard!  This is only my second blog post this month, and April is half over already!  There are only three weeks left of my senior year of college!  After this, I will have one summer class to take and an internship requirement to fulfill and I will officially be a college grad!  I am SO ready for that.  Today was my first full day of work at my new job that I landed recently!  I will be working at Woodward Academy (a juvenile rehabilitation facility) for at least the rest of the summer and most likely for at least the next year.  I feel like my life is slowly but surely coming together (at least for the short term) which is awesome because a major source of stress up to this point in my life was wondering exactly what I was going to be doing after I graduate.

 I have been really encouraged by the fact that things seem to be finally falling into place.  I mean, sure- I'm still single, poor, and have no plan for my life beyond the next year (assuming that the world doesn't end this year) but things could be worse.  I think that it is precisely at times like this that I have to be the most careful to guard myself from falling into bad habits and old sins.

I notice that it tends to be during periods of life where things seem to be going OK that I forget to focus fully on God and to be continually thankful for the good things that have been coming my way.  Case in point:  the other night, right after salt, I said somethings in an off hand way to one of my friends that really offended her and caused unneeded pain.  It came out of no where- I was simply too comfortable with myself and too confident in my ability to avoid sin.  I was viewing life like some sort of video game where I had achieved the next level and now had nothing to worry about from the "lower level" monsters that I fight against.  But the reality is that at any given moment, even when you or I are feeling at our most holy, that we are a mere hairsbreadth away from disaster!

The apostle Peter warns us of this in his letter to the church: "Be self-controlled and alert.  Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour." (1 Peter 5:8)
  In other words, as long as we live in this broken world, we will be under the constant threat and lure of the Enemy to walk in a path that will make us ineffective as Christ followers.  On the one hand, we can take comfort in the fact that making us ineffective is ALL he can do; that is, he no longer holds any power over the souls or ultimate destiny of any who follow Jesus.  But on the other hand, it would be a great tragedy if we allowed the fact that we are relatively safe to dictate the intensity of our fight against stagnation and ineffectiveness.

It is really easy to get into a rhythm and get comfortable with where we are.  It is easy to overlook the little details- but it is the little details that sometimes matter the most in the end.  C.S. Lewis said it like this:
"Good and evil both increase at compound interest.  That is why the little decisions that you and I make every day are of such infinite importance.  The smallest good act today is the capture of a strategic point from which, a few months later, you may be able to go on to victories you never dreamed of.  An apparently trivial indulgence in lust or anger today is the loss of a ridge or railway line from which the enemy may launch an otherwise impossible attack."


There is a great passage from Jeremiah that I have been meditating on for the past week:
"Stand at the crossroads and look; ask for the ancient paths, ask where the good way is, and walk in it, and you will find rest for your souls." (Jeremiah 6:16)

God is calling to each of us.  He has shown us through His word what the good way is.  Each day, we come to and stand at many crossroads; to one side is the way to God and life, on the other lies death and destruction.  This may be as small as the decision to go to class instead of sleep, or be responsible with your money and not go out to eat for dinner.  It may be something more significant like holding your tongue when you have the option to say something that will wound someone else, or choosing not to look at porn when you are alone in your apartment.

 God stands at the end of the Good Way and calls with a fierce longing for his children to turn back from the wrong turn they have taken at the Crossroads, repent, and run to Him so that he can lavish his love on us.  The promise we have for such obedience is astounding in its simplicity and its scope:

We will find rest for our souls