Today I planned to surprise my wife by completing some household chores. She is attending a workshop in Kansas and visiting friends. So, I got up and began washing all the windows in our home. Really washing them. I took them out of the frames and washed outside and inside. Then I washed the window frames. We have patio doors downstairs and upstairs. I took a toothbrush and the vacuum cleaner to clean the grime from the tracks before washing the glass in the doors (yep, inside and out). I learned several things. It’s nearly impossible to put those removable screens back in the window frames. We have a lot of windows in our house. And washing windows is not easy!
I started with zeal and the intent to have this job down, before I mowed the lawn and made lunch. Guess what! After cleaning six windows and one set of doors it was 3 pm. I stopped to eat lunch and that was enough. Our air conditioner isn’t working and it got hot inside. My back ached. My interest waned. I lost the desire to finish the job (although I did mow the lawn and I plan to finish the windows tomorrow). What happened? The fog and friction of life intervened and I failed to accomplish what I intended to achieve. Friction wears on all of our abilities; physical, mental, and spiritual. The inability to know everything that is happening or is going to happen contributes weariness. We are forced to guess what is around the corner or over the hill. We plan for an unknown tomorrow. Life’s daily pressures, unplanned interruptions, unknowns of the future, the urgent but unimportant accumulate and wear on our ability to be effective. Left unchecked, fog and friction can be much more devastating than a few dirty windows. It can derail our walk with the LORD.
Fog and friction are very real things that impact us. However, we do not have to give up because we feel like the weight of the world is on us. The moving parts of your car engine are bathed in oil to reduce the natural law of friction. We study these concepts in strategic education in order to learn how to overcome friction in our lives.
Paul understood the effects of friction in our lives. He often used the analogy of a race and encouraged Christians to prepare and persevere. Paul gives us tips on how to win. In Hebrews 12, he draws a picture of victory for us. First, Paul described a crowd of supporters to cheer us on. In that crowd, we see God Himself as our Father. Jesus is there too. We know that Jesus has completed the race before and tore down all of the obstacles so that we can make it. There are the Apostles and Christians who have received their crowns are now waiting for us to join them. Running with us are our brothers and sisters in Christ, our teammates shouting encouragement. As we run, we must remain vigilant to avoid pot holes and trash that can trip us. However, we have been training, we know the game plan, and our eyes are fixed on Jesus, the author of our faith.
In Him,
Dan
www.noblepurposeministries.org
