It's hard to believe that just a few short months ago my granddaughter, Bella, was just taking her first few unsteady steps. Now she's walking everywhere - and I do mean EVERYWHERE - and getting into everything. She walks so well now that she is really ready to turn the walk into a run.
Last week we were playing in my backyard. She thinks it is hilariously funny when I chase and try to catch her, so we were doing a bit of that. Then I switched up the game a bit and got her to try to chase me. She thought that was fun too, but after just a few minutes, she turned and trotted off the opposite way in the yard. I yelled to her, "Bella, you can't catch me if you aren't going the same way I'm going!"
BAM! The thought hit me immediately. That's what God is constantly saying to us. We can't "catch" Him if we aren't going in the direction He is moving. Not only that, but moving away from God takes us from His protection and into places of danger.
Bella went the opposite way and at first, she was fine. She was still in a safe place in the backyard, but if she had continued to move away from me, she eventually would have wandered into places of danger like the woods or.the street.
When we first let other things interfere with our pursuit of God, we don't notice a problem. We are still good, decent, moral people. We think we can handle this life just fine on our own. It's no big deal. The further we go in the opposite direction, the more the trajectory leads us into situations that we never thought we'd find ourselves in again.
My husband Paul reminded me of a similar story involving Bella's dad, our son, Josh. When he was a little fellow, just learning to ride a bike, he took a bike ride in our neighborhood. He was still using training wheels, so this was early in his skill development in this area. He had his helmet on and was riding just a little ahead of us as we circled the neighborhood. His dad told him not to get too far ahead of us so he would be safe. As he grew more confident, he peddled faster and faster and ultimately ended up hitting a rough patch of pavement and fell off his bike, skinning up his elbows and knees. In spite of the warning to stay close, he made other choices. Paul said it's like he had the helmet of salvation to keep him safe, but he forgot to stay close to his father and put himself in danger.
Remember that no matter how much you think you "have it together", you cannot risk moving off the path of pursuit in the same direction God is leading.
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