Turn Aside

Posted by Lisa Laree to Beer Lahai Roi

1st day of the corporate fast, which meant I got to spend my lunch  (at 3 PM!) in the sanctuary with my Bible and my journal.

It's been way too long since I last did that.

But what sprang out of my pen onto the page...after I noticed that the last journal entry was September 27...! ..was a surprise...

So dry so long...

Wandering off the path, away from the oasis, just trying to get from Point A to Point B as quickly as possible.  So focused on the tasks that I didn't even know I was hungry and thirsty...or starving and dehydrated.  A sip of water or a morsel of nourishment from odd places by the way, I could not seem to turn aside to the well and garden that I knew were just off to the right.   No time or, really, even desire to turn aside, I forged ahead...pushing through the brush.

Finally arriving at my destination, the point at which the tasks were completed, I found there was another point ahead calling with equal urgency. How could I, even now, pause enough to turn aside for refreshment, sustenance, encouragement and instruction?  Duty calls, people are waiting, the clock is ticking.   Plunging again into the thickets, I deny that the call to turn aside is even there, fixing my eyes on the new goal, when I will have enough time to shift my focus and find rest, healing and direction. 

But, no -- there is another deadline, another cause, another need to fill looming even as I fulfill the latest demand.

Suddenly, I see it.  It is a huge circle of overlapping demands.

If I don't find a way to stop, refresh and recharge, I will shrivel into dust as I flail around from one demand on to the next on to the next... 

It is time to take my eyes off of the goal, stop my  ears to its demands and seek the One who holds my days, knows my heart and can pour into me the refreshing that my soul craves and has been too long denied.

Show me YOUR ways, Lord, teach me YOUR paths, for YOU are my God, my Savior and my hope is in YOU all day long.  -- Ps 25:4-5, NIV 11 (emphasis mine)