I was thumbing through an old book tonight and ran by one of those sections that, you know, makes you shake your head and say, “Wow! That is exactly right!” You know, the kind that makes you close the book and run to your computer and tweet it or fb it, or in this case blog it.

It is from Not the Way It’s Supposed to Be by Cornelius Plantinga, Jr. I read this book a few years ago, but this paragraph hit me fresh and new tonight.

“The gifts of God-vitality, love, forgiveness, courage against evil, joy at our depths, and everything else that flows from the work of Christ-may be found only in the company of God. And we keep company with God only by adopting God’s purposes for us and following through on them even when it is difficult or initially painful to do so. To place ourselves in range of God’s choicest gifts, we have to walk with God, lean on God, cling to God, come to have the sense and feel of God, refer all things to God. Contrary to our self interested impulses, we have to worship God with a disciplined spirit and an expectant heart.”

Then Plantinga really brought the heat as he continued

“But just here lies our main evasion, the one we have all practiced a thousand times: like the Israelites indicted by Jeremiah, we ‘forget God.’ (Jer 2:32; 13:25; 18:15). For weeks at a time we go through the motions, never seriously attending to God, never focusing on God, never- with all the weight of mind and heart- turning ourselves over to God. The thought that by such negligence we keep on wounding the only being who loves us with a perfect and expensive love, the thought that we are deeply entangled not only in our sin but also in the bloody remedy for it- these thoughts become bearable and routine. At last we put them away and sink into functional godlessness. When we are in that state, God does not seem very real to us. So we do not pray. The less we pray, the less real God seems to us. And the less God seems real to us, the duller our sense of responsibility becomes, and thus the duller our sense of ignoring God becomes.” (195)

Like my dad always says, if you can’t say “amen” say “ouch!”

The author does offer hope as he reflects on the overwhelming love our merciful God has for us as he writes,

“Human sin is stubborn, but not as stubborn as the grace of God and not half so persistent, not half so ready to suffer to win its way.”

Maybe those careless days of failing to attend to God would be fewer if I would consciously and consistently consider how passionately and relentlessly he pursues me.

Even now Christ is seated at the right hand of the Father interceding on my behalf. Even now the Spirit of God dwells in me working to sanctify me and conform me to the image of Christ. It seems to me that these two very powerful truths for every believer in every moment. Whenever you find yourself wavering, wondering, or at a loss as to how you can find some traction to get yourself back to focusing on God, try to focus on these two amazing truths and allow God’s kindness to lead you to repentance.