How's your house?

“Your address used to be Paradise.” I have seen this phrase in every John Eldridge book I’ve read and it brings my desires and my shortcomings clearly into view. I desire to be back in the Garden. No more barriers, no more duties, no more regrets. All that is left is fellowship with my brothers and with my Lord. I know this is what I want. Intellectually I know there is nothing I can do to achieve this reward. So what and why am I still trying to achieve? This is the root of my greatest sin (though all sin is equal in bringing death). I know in my heart of hearts there is nothing I can do to earn this exquisite repose. Yet I try to arrange for this outcome. If I’m honest, I’m not even consciously organizing. I just do it. I arrange. I plan. I scheme. I strive for a certain life that I can never attain in my own strength. Why? What is all this planning supposed to accomplish if achievement cannot bring me to the end I so desire? Is it just futile effort, is it a thorn in my side, or is it something worse? I know God does not need my help, only all my heart, strength and mind. What good is my planning when I can’t even secure my own food supply but must rely on His grace for basic needs.

If my planning is just a futile effort I am wasting resources. I have a finite amount of energy and time. I must be a good steward of the gifts and skills I have been appointed. The parable is clear, do not bury you talent.

If arranging is a thorn in my side it steals the focus from more appropriate matters. Distraction is a formidable enemy. Think of Peter at the Transfiguration. Setting up the three tabernacles was distraction. Apparently, even talking about the transfiguration before the crucifixion would have been a distraction, which is why Jesus forbids it. Had the tabernacles been made, had they stayed on the mountain, the atonement, the blood, the salvation of the world would not have come. Peter and the others were settling for a heaven of their own construction here on earth.

If we take the scheming further a point is reached where control is transferred. At this point I no longer control the arranging, it controls me. An addiction much like alcohol or drugs. No longer a distraction, but the focus. My mind jumps to David and Bathsheba, though there are many examples. Once sin is the focus there is no room for God. Light and dark do not coexist. In America today we see this in the addiction to money, power and fame. In these economic times I fear we will see even more the destruction of the addicted by their wicked obsessions. Last month, a German multi-millionaire threw himself in front of a train because his addiction destroyed him.

How is your house? Where are you on this scale? Wasting time, distracted or addicted? The good news is that you can’t multi-task. Many scientific studies prove humans can only have one focus at a time. If we make God our focus. If we begin to pray with the fervor we ought to. The closer we’ll get to the Garden. Closer to the desire that God has placed in us from the very beginning. It’s time to actively turn our focus to where we want to be. Our address used to be Paradise; our hearts are still there.