The Rut

As I woke this morning, I was lying in bed, ready to pray to Dad, when I heard Him say to me in my spirit, 'JD, where are you?' I replied, 'What so You mean - where am I? You know where I am... lying here in this comfortable bed, getting ready to get up and pray to You like I always do, Dad.' But As I was getting out of bed, I heard Him say to me again, 'JD, where are you, my son?' By now, I'm sitting on the edge of the bed, still wondering what He means - Where am I? So, before I started to pray, I had opened up my Recovery Bible to the 4th step of Recovery which says, 'We made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves'

It made me wonder why Dad would ask me where I was. The last time I remembered being asked, 'Son where are you?' was back in 1973. I was about to graduate from Southmoreland Sr. High and my dad, James had come into my bedroom one morning and said, 'Jimmy, where are you boy? What plans do you have after high school?' I remember telling my dad I was thinking about getting a gig around Scottdale and staying here. My dad said, 'Boy you ain't staying around here; you'll be going to college and make something of yourself. Your mother and I want to enroll you at Duquesne University in Pittsburgh.' I remember saying, 'Dad, I don't know anybody in Pittsburgh, and my friends are here, my girlfriends are here, and I like Scottdale and I know Scottdale likes me.'

You see I was comfortable in the circuit i was in; the trails were well marked and very easily recognized. Things in my life, at the time were predictable and familiar on the merry-go-round. I liked my comfortable world and life. I knew what to avoid, what to look forward to, and what to expect. My friends were all here, but that day in 1973, my dad rocked my world and told me I would not get anywhere in life staying here - I was going away to college after graduation. My dad and mom put an end to my predictable routine! I was in a rut - they knew it, but I didn't. That's why my dad asked me that morning, 'Jimmy, where are you?'

So I'm here today, hearing the same question, but this time from my Heavenly Dad, 'JD, where are you son?' I am brought to God's Word in Deuteronomy 2, Where Moses was leading a ton of people forty laps around the same mountains, but not really getting anywhere. In their predictable routine, Dad said to Moses "You have circled this mountain long enough; turn and go in another direction." They were in a rut; it was time for new dynamics, new dimensions, and a new direction. It was time to crane the neck, scan the horizon, forget the past, and look ahead.

I've had some negative memories that i have had to put behind me; some wounds and pains that I've had to leave at the altar and get on with the life that Jesus says I can have abundantly.

I like what Paul says in Philippians 3: "Forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead." In Isaiah 13 it says, "Do not remember the former things, nor consider the things the things of old. behold I will do a new thing. Now it shall spring forth." Reaching forward is a good spiritual exercise, isn't it? I think it stimulates hope: "Faith is the substance of things hoped for" and puts us in a state of expectancy. We can't get this by being in a rut. My dad, James, used to always tell me, 'Son, if the kitchen is to hot, get out, and if you're at the bottom there's only one way to go - up'

I am convinced that our heavenly Dad did not send His only begotten Son Jesus for us to be in a rut. After all, He says, "For I know the plans I have for you - plans to prosper you and not harm you; plans to give you hope and a future." (Jeremiah 29:11) I think I now why He asked me, "JD where are you?"

Yesterday was good, Today is better, Tomorrow will be better still!