Check!

  

 We love to make lists, prioritization charts, and goals don’t we?  It’s what we are taught to do because it would be crazy to go to the grocery store before you go to the bank to withdraw money.  It’s a natural human instinct and it has helped us out a lot.

Make spear. Run down animal.  Eat. 

It’s been going on for a while, and I think as humans we are quite good at it by now.

We have become so efficient in fact, that we fail miserably when it comes to walking with Jesus.  I think I have figured it out and organized everything so well that it isn’t until I fall on my face, bloody, tears streaming, and broken that I realize my check list was all wrong.  That all the things, activities, and people I put before “Coming unto Jesus” have transformed into detestable idols that have “become a burden to me and carried me off into captivity” (Isaiah 46).

If I decide to be a nurse before I am a forgiven daughter of Christ, I will hate those beautiful, sick children I see every day. If I decide to be a best friend or sister to someone before I am a pure child of God, I will curse those friends in my heart and murder them with my thoughts.  If I decide to work for a non-profit before I am a servant of Christ I will hate ministry, single mothers, and feeding the hungry.  If I try to love, without first realizing the infinite love that Jesus has for me I will be fake and religious. 

How do I know?  Because I have felt it and seen it happen over and over in my heart.

The Lord has called me back to America for some time in September, till who knows when.  I get the question- “What has been the biggest lesson during your time in Uganda?”  That question used to take some thought, but not anymore.  There is a song in my heart that beckons me to sing out loud to myself, churches, organizations, and families everywhere. 

Love the Lord your God with ALL your HEART.  Any thing, person, or place you put on His throne will carry you away into captivity.  Don’t let any outside force or the inward love of self get in your way of getting closer to Jesus.

Go ahead, make your checklist.  But keep in mind that if Jesus isn’t the first on your list or in your heart, the day will be a messy disaster, whether you know it yet or not.  If Jesus is above all things, know with peaceful certainty that your list may still be messed up by His own doing and know that you are in perfect order of His perfect plan for the world and yourself.  

“What I have said, that will I bring about; what I have planned, that will I do.  Listen to me, you stubborn-hearted, you who are far from righteousness.  I am bringing my righteousness near, it is not far away; and my salvation will not be delayed.  I will grant salvation to Zion, my splendor to Israel.” –Isaiah 46:11-13