Detour

“Now therefore, fear the Lord, serve Him in sincerity and in truth, and put away the gods which your fathers served on the other side of the River and in Egypt. Serve the Lord!  And if it seems evil to you to serve the Lord, choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.”  Joshua 24:14-15 (NIV)

We try our best to make good decisions.  Some of them are very simple like getting up from bed and taking a shower before work.  Others might be a bit more challenging like wearing the right clothes for an interview or deciding on which washer and dryer set to get from the appliance store (Yes, my wife and I did that once).  However there are some decisions where we tend to overcomplicate things.  Some of these can lead to dangerous results.  For example, a gambler will risk his mortgage payment trying to make up for losses earlier in the day.  Their thought?  I need to make up for the money I lost.  But why would one risk their home just because they lost earlier?  I never have gambled, but I’ve heard the ugly stories when someone did.  It’s always the impulse of ‘I can win this time!’  When conflicted with what God expects and my own wants, I have to avoid focusing on temporary and impulsive happiness in exchange for long term spiritual growth and abundance of joy God offers.  Of course the latter is better, but I must discipline myself not to fall for an immediately gratifying but unfulfilling detour.

We should always maintain our focus on God’s long term plan toward joy rather than our own temporary pathway to short-term fulfillment.  I saw today’s verse pop up on my Bible app today.  Normally, I write something God inspires me to throughout the week.  However, I realized I had never written on these verses albeit one of my favorites.  A Christian song that I love to hear speaks of it saying, “As for me and my house, we will serve you Lord.”  In reading the verses, it feels like one of those arguments where you are willing to listen to discussion, but you already know what your answer is.  For example when Jesus is being tempted in the wilderness after 40 days and nights of fasting, the devil tries to tempt Jesus, but we already know how Jesus was going to respond, right?  “People do not live by bread alone,” and “You must not test the Lord your God.” (Matthew 4:6b, 7b)  Like God said to the people in Joshua, we can all grow comfortable in our surroundings, but we must always remember the God we serve; the one who carries us when we are weak and was always there for the Israelites from Abraham through Moses and Joshua.

God is always on our side.  We not only have plenty of stories throughout the Bible but also our own experiences when God displayed His faithfulness pulling us through crisis after crisis.  We will always have to deal with temptation to take what may seemingly appear to be an easy way out, but we know the right choice as God laid out to Israel in today’s verses.  Don’t take the easy route!  Trust in God’s long term plan for your life.  What is tempting you to divert from God’s long term plans for you?  How can you stay on course when temptation hits at your time of stress?  My prayer is that we are able to seek the long term joy God has in store for our lives and not fall prey to the short term detour.  Amen.