I drove to the church yesterday for the breakfast, and it was good. The breakfast, I am talking about. As soon as it was over, we headed out the door so that I could drop hubby off at home and then head to my lunch with friends. Just as I started to get on the freeway I hear a ding. I look and the message 'low tire pressure' comes up. That has always made me somewhat anxious. I quickly evaluated my thoughts on 'do I go ahead and drive the (about) 20 miles to the restaurant and back and then figure it out - or do I not get on the freeway and get it done now. Well, I took the second option and headed to Big O Tire which was back past our house. They were very friendly and checked the door to see what the label said as far as air pressure. Whatever it was - he filled it up and then told me "all 4 tires were about 8 pounds low". Yipes. So glad I stopped to get air in the tires first!
It made me about 30 minutes late to the lunch and I debated on just calling my boss and saying I wasn't coming - but I didn't. They waited on me, and after chatting for a bit, we all ordered our lunch and had a great visit. It was so good to see my friends. And I was at ease because I had air in the tires! No worries about that! I took my time driving home and even stopped and got the car washed on the way!
Getting home I thought I'd work on the message for today, and I got about 3/4 through it - and fell asleep. Slept for about 30 minutes, I think, when my sister called so then chatted with her. Quickly skimmed the message again and then went out to fix dinner. After dinner we watched a couple Christmas movies. Sometimes I wonder what hubby would do if he never had a TV again. Now I do enjoy the movies as a rule, but I don't have to watch them. After all, the Christmas movies (the classics) that I watched for years when the kids were home, he refuses to watch at all anymore. (i.e. "It's a Wonderful life", "Heidi", etc.)
And today, we will be driving north a bit for me to speak at the RV park. I've gone through the message a couple times already this morning and made some changes. I hope I can read through all my scribbles. If I have time, I'll go in to the actual message and correct it in the computer and reprint - but probably won't do that until later. I will see how it flows today - and then make changes - for I will be using the same message for next week at the RV park here in town. Then I get two weeks to find another message to do January 7th at the RV park again. Only 1 next month though.
Today the message is on Leaving to Follow. When we got married, we 'left' our parents. To find a better job, we left a former job. When we choose to follow Jesus, sometimes there is a lot of 'leaving' we need to do. Sometimes we need to leave old friends. Sometimes we need to leave old habits. Sometimes we need to leave anger and unforgiveness behind us. It requires a leaving of 'us' in order to follow Jesus.
In the Bible, it shares a lot of 'leaving'. Abraham had to leave his father and his father's people and travel to where God told him to go. Several of the prophets had to leave their families, their towns, to do what God told them to do. And James and John had to leave their father Zebedee and the hired men in the boats, to follow Jesus. And because they did leave, we read about them today.
But what if James and John chose not to leave Zebedee, but instead told Jesus that they had to stay because they would inherit the family business? What if they chose family over Jesus? If they had, we would have never heard of them. It required a leaving, a sacrifice on their part, to follow Jesus.
And sometimes we need to look at our lives and see what Jesus wants us to give up to follow Him. It may not be anything drastic, but it may be something that we have held on to and made our god. If we keep a friend who influences us the wrong way.... we have made that person our god. Does that make sense? Jesus said that to follow Him, it meant we need to let go of everything - family, money, jobs, friends, positions, anything that keeps us from influencing us to be completely His. Sometimes that is hard to do. I get it. How bad do you want to follow Jesus?
Matthew 16:24 (NKJV): "Then Jesus said to His disciples, "If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me.""
Leaving isn't always easy. Leaving is sometimes very hard. Is there something in your life that you need to 'leave', in order to follow Jesus? Is it a bad attitude? Is it greed? Is it unforgiveness? Is it a friend or family member who influences you? Maybe we all need to do an evaluation and determine what it is that keeps us from following Jesus all the way.
Even though I was sure that Jesus would protect me yesterday if I continued to drive towards my lunch after I got the message 'low tire pressure'.... it was my warning that perhaps I needed to do something about that. I'm glad I did, cause it brought peace of mind and no worry about my tires.
Sometimes we will feel a 'nudge' as a warning that perhaps we should do something about our life to make it more significant. What are you going to do about it? That nudge could bring you peace of mind, if you follow that 'warning'. Think about it.
Blessings!
