Quicksand

OK, so I quote movies a lot, and even if they depart from reality rather often, there is still wisdom to be gleaned from them. In the movie, "The Replacements", there is a pro football strike, and the league chooses to play the season with replacement players. This gives second or only chances to players who would have never made it in the pros otherwise. Keanu Reeves stars as QB Shane Falco, a one-time college star whose career ended after a disastrous Sugar Bowl where he threw four interceptions and his team lost 35-7.

About halfway through the replacement players' season, the team is struggling mightily, so the coach (Gene Hackman) calls a players' meeting and asks the team what they are so afraid of. After some cheesy jokes, Falco chimes in with his biggest fear..."Quicksand", he says. One of his teammates asks him what he means, and he replies, "Well let's say you are playing, and everything is going fine. Then you make one mistake, and another, and another, then another. The harder you fight the deeper you sink. Next thing you know you can't move, can't breathe...like quicksand." Obviously the players rally around their coach and QB and turn the season around or it wouldn't be much of a movie, lol.

That's how it is in life sometimes, at least with me. I don't know about everyone else, but when things go wrong in my life, they tend to go wrong in packs, like wolves. And when that happens, it seems like every move you make to try and pull myself out of the mud only sinks you deeper, like quicksand.

I am not sure why this is, but I have a theory. The difference between now and times past is that I have God to take things like this to, to ask Him about it, question Him, seek His will, even disagree or be upset with Him from time to time. What's even cooler is that I am not required by the Lord or my faith to like it when things go wrong. I truly believe that the God I serve is big enough to handle all of these things and then some...the only thing that breaks His heart is silence, when I don't talk to Him at all. There in lies the biggest problem I have with my faith over the long haul.

Comparatively speaking, my life is very blessed...living in America, free, gainfully employed as a professional, etc. I would also bet that I am not alone in that, when my life gets busy or hectic, and doubly so when life is a good busy and hectic, my time with God gets inevitably gets downsized. This is bad enough, because when things are going well, that is part of God's plan too, so he is properly due credit and praise for that. Worse yet, in these instances of downsized God-time, the time I do give Him inevitably ends up dedicated to asking for things I want, blessings I feel are due me. Contrast this with the period of time after I first became saved, when I couldn't WAIT to talk to the Lord, be it in prayer, at night before bed (the most frequent) or even in my car on the way to work...of course I prayed about things in my own life, but I also dedicated time to others and was just plain happy to spend that private quality time with Him.

My selfish downsizing of God's time in my life isn't right, no matter the reason. So times like now, when I catch myself doing that, it's then time to go to the Lord and ask His forgiveness and make my best effort to improve going forward. I am unsure where I heard this, but someone once said that God doesn't give us everything we want because if He did, we wouldn't need Him and would never talk to Him. While, from a human perspective, this sounds incredibly selfish, from the perspective of a Christian, it is, in reality, very little to ask indeed. In fact, that's the least I can do, because were I (or anyone else) dependent on what we could do for God in exchange for salvation, Hell would be bursting at the seams in very short order.

In closing, I saw NFL QB Ben Roethlisberger on Sportscenter tonight in his first interview since a serious motorcycle wreck a few months back that could have easily killed him. He told Jim Rome that he felt this was God's way of reminding him to slow down, that he wasn't invincible, and that everything he had could be taken away in a second. I have worked very hard to get where I am, I am thankful for it, and I look forward to greater things in the future...but I certainly didn't get here on my own and I won't ascend to the greatness God has destined for me that way either.

While I can't say I am terribly thriled with the recent and temporary valleys in my life, I will certainly thank the Lord in my prayers tonight that He didn't send me a telegram requesting the honor of my time and presence with Him in a much more serious fashion. Message received Lord, loud and clear.