Good Morning Everyone,
Our theme for this month: “A life of service”
Our Bible verse for today: “ …then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your forefathers served beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.” Joshua 24:15 (NIV)
Our thought for today: “Choose your rut carefully.”
So much of life is simply a matter of habit! As humans we tend to be creatures of habit. We develop comfortable patterns for daily life and we tend to stick with them for a long, long time.
The Australian Outback is a desolate and dry place that extends for more than a thousand miles. It seldom rains there but when it does, the rain comes in torrential downpours and creates huge mud bogs. Those who live in the Outback commonly drive very large four wheel drive vehicles with huge knobby tires that will get them through the mud bogs.
Unfortunately, driving through those mud bogs with those big tires creates deep ruts in the roads. When the land dries out the ruts remain, often for hundreds of miles. The ruts are deep and almost impossible to get out of once you’re in one. So when you choose to drive in one of those dried out ruts you’re doing so with the understanding that you’re going to be in it until it ends, perhaps hundreds of miles from where you start. In one place there’s a large sign, intended mainly for visitors and those not familiar with the terrain. It reads, “Choose your rut carefully. You will be in it for the next 400 miles!”
That’s a metaphor of life. We must choose our habits carefully because habits become ruts and once we’re deep into them, we’re going to have them for a long time and they will be tough to get out of. Behavioral scientists tell us that if we will stick with an activity for 21 days it will become a habit. Then the longer we stick with it, the more deeply ingrained that habit becomes and the harder it is to get out of it.
When it comes to a life of service to the Lord and to others we want it to become a deeply ingrained habit. The way we do that is we determine to stick with an activity until it simply becomes a part of us. We become so familiar with it, and so used to doing it, that it essentially becomes a rut, but a good rut.
However when it comes to the practice of the Christian faith the opposite is true too. If you allow yourself to fall away, even for a short time, your unfaithfulness becomes your new rut. Stay out of church for three straight Sunday’s (21 days), and you will find it increasingly difficult to get started again. Stop participating in regular acts of ministry, and you will become lazier and lazier in your church life – stuck in a rut of inactivity.
You get the picture. Ruts (habits) are simply part of our human nature. There are good ruts (habits) and there are bad ruts (habits). And you are the one who chooses what yours will be. When it comes to who or what you will serve, you can serve yourself and the world, or you can serve God and His people.
You do have to choose, and no choice is a choice. So be careful what you choose because your choice could quickly become your rut and you could find yourself stuck in it for a long, long time.
God Bless,
Pastor Jim
Oak Hill Baptist Church 