Are You Headed Into A Downward Spiral?

While running down the path yesterday, I spotted a tree that I wanted to take a picture of so I stopped to point and shoot.  I started to run again and turned to look up at the leaves rustling in the breeze and I was taken by surprise when my entire body began to rotate, headed into  a downward spiral toward the asphalt.  I slammed down, twisting my ankle, hitting my shoulder, and scrapping my hands and legs.

I had encountered the force of gravity!  Gravitation is a natural phenomenon where by all things with mass are brought toward one another.  The center of gravity is the balancing point in an object about which a body will balance without the tendency to rotate.  My center of gravity had shifted just enough that it was no longer over its area of support and so my body obeyed the natural law of rotational physics.

As my shoulder aches this morning I am reminded that when I try to run ahead of God, determining my own support area, I rotate into a downward spiral.

Being in an active and vibrant relationship with God through prayer, reading of His word, and the church, we stay in line with His gravitation and there is a reciprocal effect.  As I pull on Him for strength, He moves toward me and in so doing I am pulled closer into His will.

However, when I step outside of His ordained structure and function for my life by running in a direction that excludes communion with Him and others, I stumble and fall whether I realize it or not.

Running in our own direction is unwise as we desperately need the Lord's guiding force in our lives to keep us grounded and sure footed.  He is our strong tower, He is our refuge and our strength.  What makes us think that we can go it alone?  Our pride of course!

The human default setting is to run off the path God has set up for us, just like a two year old that asserts him or herself when an adult is trying to do what is best for that child.

This week, as I left church, my friends were heading to their car with their children.  There two-year old was protesting against her mother's protective care as they walked through the parking lot to get in the car.  She was kicking and screaming all the way and yelling "No Mama! No!"

Aren't we just like that child?  We want to go our own way, without realizing that when we are outside of the protective care of our shepherd, we can quickly go into a downward spiral.

Part of the protective care of our Shepherd entails us being united in a body of believers with an under shepherd.  So often people pick and choose when and how often they attend church, all the while acting as a rebellious child saying, "No! I won't go!"

There is safety and rest to be had as we submit to God's ordained plan to be a part of a local body.  All the epistles were written to congregations that Paul was encouraging or correcting or both.

How can we assume that we will stay in line with what God wants for our lives if we rotate out of the area of His ordained support?

Proverbs 11:14 clearly shows the importance of being in the community of God

Where there is no guidance, a people falls, 

but in an abundance of counselors 

there is safety. 

Proverbs 15:21-25

Folly is a joy to him who lacks sense, 

but a man of understanding walks straight ahead.  

Without counsel plans fail, 

but with many advisers they succeed.  

To make an apt answer is joy to a man, 

and a word in season how good it is!  

The path of life leads upward for the prudent, 

that he may turn away from Sheol beneath.  

The LORD tears down the house of the proud 

but maintains the widow's boundaries.

Scripture is replete with 'one another',  showing us that supporting one another, loving one another, forgiving one another and ultimately being a part of a body of believers is what God has called us to do.  When we walk out of that area of support we are acting in pride, thinking we know better than God and in so doing we rotate out of His will.

Father, thank you for your great provision for our lives.  Thank you that You are the force that keeps us grounded and as we seek Your face, drawing near to You through Your word, we are drawn to you more and we see more and more your ordained pattern for us to be in intimate community with one another so that we can grow into the stature and fullness of Christ as we are sanctified.

 Help us to know when we are kicking and screaming to walk our own way.  Help us to not rotate over our ordained area of support through the church as our default is to think of ourselves as autonomous.