daily spiritual reflection - apr. 1

BIBLE READING FOR THE DAY: 

"Has a nation ever changed its gods?

(Yet they are not gods at all.)

But my people have exchanged their glorious God

for worthless idols.

Be appalled at this, you heavens,

and shudder with great horror,"

declares the Lord.

"My people have committed two sins:

They have forsaken me,

the spring of living water,

and have dug their own cisterns,

broken cisterns that cannot hold water."

-Jeremiah: 2:11b-13

THOUGHT: In this passage, God is sad. You can hear it in the words he passes on to Jeremiah. He misses his people-- his people have turned from him. They don't respect him as God any more, but even more than that, they are not in relationship with him. And most of all, he is concerned for them: he has the water they need, but they are trying to make it on their own and he can tell it's not working. Their cisterns are broken and cannot hold water.

I think of interacting with God sometimes like having a GPS system in a car. We're driving along, and we think we can do it ourselves. We have faith in the meaning of elite education, or we trust in money as our security, or we idolize marriage as the cure to loneliness, or we see travel as the escape to real living and adventure. We can even see 'being a good person' or 'helping people' as the way to a sense of meaning. There are a million different things we can put our faith in. So even though we each have a built-in-GPS, we think we already know the way... so we mute it and try to make it without the GPS. We insist that we know the right way and turn left when the muted GPS is signaling to go straight. 

And then once in a while we'll look up, and we'll feel lost, and we'll feel unsure where we're going.

But the GPS has never lost us. It's part of us. It's built in, and it has an uninterrupted connection with the satellites above that can always tell us exactly where we are. And even as we make wrong turns and don't listen to its directions, it doesn't give up on is. Graciously, you can hear it say, "re-calculating..." at every turn always telling us where route home is that we can listen to and follow.

CHALLENGE:  The problem with most of the things we find ourselves putting our faith in are that those things aren't living ("they are not Gods at all" from the passage above). They don't care about us, they don't interact with us, they aren't concerned for our well-being with the unconditional love of a parent and creator who knows us perfectly. List out the different things you put your faith in, that you try to create life out of (your "broken cisterns"). Then actually try to imagine each of them-- their inanimate, conceptual state-- taking care of you. What do they have to offer you? How will they treat you? Do they encourage you to fear, or to feel anxious, to worry?

Then, whether or not you feel like you've experienced directions from God before, try to imagine him in your life, as a constant and eternal guide, a concerned parent who loves you deeply and helps you along the road of life. How would putting faith in him instead change your relationship with these other things? Do you find yourself more empowered? Less fearful? How do those things that were previously 'little gods' or "broken cisterns", dictating your life, become tools you can use as you live more freely, in relationship with someone trustworthy, who loves and cares about you? What makes this relationship structure different? Why is it so necessary that our a God be living?

If you feel like engaging more with this God, try praying through these things with him. Consider posting a part of this passage somewhere in your room to remind yourself not to dig your own cisterns, but instead to listen with your heart for the still, small voice graciously saying, "recalculating..., recalculating..."