The Folly of Living Apart from God

Sometimes it’s easy to lose our way.  On virtually every trip I take, I have to turn around and get back on the right path.  I was recently joking with a friend of mine that I have to allow extra time on any trip to make up for my unplanned “detours.”  Life is a journey.  And like any other trip, we sometimes find ourselves drifting off course. 

If we are not careful, it’s easy for us to try to live our lives apart from God.  The decision to do so may be intentional or unintentional, but the result is often the same.  We are somewhere other than where God would have us.  A few years ago, I flew into the Port Columbus airport.  My parents were picking me up, and they were confused about where I would be.  After waiting a while at the “pick up” entrance, I moved on the the “drop off” entrance.  You can guess what happened.  As I was moving, so were they.  It took a few more times of passing one another until we managed to connect.

We often live our lives like that.  We are one place and God is somewhere else.  Sometimes we are in the wrong place accidently.  Sometimes we are in the wrong place because we like it there.  Either way, we are foolish if we choose to stay seperated from the God who loves us.  We need to return to Him.  The Bible says, “My people are foolish and do not know me,” says the Lord.  “They are stupid children who have no understanding.  They are clever enough at doing wrong, but they have no idea how to do right” (Jeremiah 4:22, NLT).  In other words, we tend to be better at getting off the path than staying on it.

There is no reason for us to be fools.  God has given us everything we need to return to Him.  We just need to get over our stubborness and our pride and return to Him.  We need to quit justifying everything we do.  For many of us, we know our behavior is wrong.  Quit excusing it.  Own up to it.  Seek the face of God and embrace His forgiveness.  We need to tell Him we are wrong and ask Him to help us straighten out.  It’s easy to be foolish.  All of us have been fools at one time or another.  The only thing worse, however, than being a fool is staying a fool once we know a better way.