Praise God for how great He has been to see my team through another week. Despite my guilt in consuming that which has been insatiable to the eyes and well outside the boundaries of what my stomach can actually bare, God’s faithfulness continues to part the waters and as I prepare for bed, another reminder stares me in the face of how guilty He has been in redeeming me from these indulgences and how gracious He has been to forget my debt as it surpasses a number I can never repay.
I have a canvas painting of Jesus running towards a lamb stuck in mud, in the front lobby of my office. It’s hard for me to look at it and not feel the raw emotion behind the artwork. I have lost count on the number of times I’ve been given the direction to drive only to find myself off the highway and in the ditch. More often, it’s this ravenous appetite that steers the truck off the road. My attempt to grab the wheel only spins me in a different direction and no matter what I seem to do inside the cab, yields anything but a perfect outcome. My only hope for getting back on the track is a triple-braided tow strap and while the repairs are always costly, they pale in comparison to the lesson learned from having taken a bite of the forbidden apple in the first place.
But, in these days of small business ownership, the need to jump on and off this merry-go-round continues regardless of how many times I get a stomachache in doing so. The scenario and its outcomes are as familiar as a broken record and no matter how often I obtain wisdom from the exercise, I continue to find myself waist deep in sludge, uncomfortable and in need of rope. What leaves me in a state of immobility is the shortfall to understand my Savior’s desire in leaving the 99 to run to me again, His voracious appetite for pulling me back to safety and His jealous love that graciously wipes the mire from my weary feet, allowing me to continue the marathon with perseverance, shedding what entangles and pushing for the finish line, marked out for me long before that fruit was even in season.
