My brother and I have reached a point in our lives where we’ve realized that we’re not quite as athletic as we were.  That doesn’t mean that we’re willing to accept it.  Heck, no… without a fight?  Not us.  That would just be an indication that we’re too tired to fight and we’re not willing to accept that either.  Our strategy for the past 3 months has been getting up early most mornings and lifting weights in my brother’s basement.

This seemed like the perfect place to set up our combined weight sets.  It had a good deal of space available, maintained a comfortable temperature and was secluded from the rest of the house.  There is one problem, however…  Cooper.

Cooper is my brother’s dog.  He’s some weird boxer, lab, mutt mix and he’s a big ball of anxiety.  He can be calmed down, but we have to avoid certain triggers that cause him to turn into the neediest animal on the planet.  Most of all, we can’t make eye contact with the dog.  If we make eye contact with Cooper, we’re done.  His face will be in our faces with his paws on our shoulders.  Like a black hole of need, he will absorb our attention, our time, our food, and our love.

My brother and I have learned.  Ignore the dog at all costs.  I’ll be on the bench press, the dog will walk over and attempt to gain my attention.  I won’t even glance.  He’ll plant himself in the middle of the floor between our weight benches hoping we trip over him.  We circumvent the dog.  He’ll lay in wait until we get on the floor to do sit ups or push ups and then run over like we’ve decided to play… we pretend he’s not there.

This approach may seem insensitive, but this is the only way to get our lifting done!

Is it possible that we have an inclination to treat God in a similar fashion?  The Bible is full of things that God wants from us.  He wants our obedience.  He wants our dedication.  He wants us to live a certain way and do certain things.  He wants us to fall in love with Him!  True love produces actions that cost time and effort.

Do we fear approaching God like we would a black hole of time, energy and efforts?  “What will He ask of me next?” is a question that concerns our hearts.  We fear that the answer looms just behind the door of communion with God, so we avoid that door… We perceive that we’ve just evaded the cost of God’s requests and fail to consider all that we stand to gain.

God wants to make personal contact with you.  Know this: He offers you far more than you can offer Him.  He wants to give you life more abundantly.  He offers truth, purpose and passion!  He wants to live in communion with you… and if it so happens that you fall in love with Him and that love demands action, you won’t care about the cost.

Pastor Travis