The enemy is crafty. Just after coming off the “high” of my sabbatical, I immediately went about making changes. I was excited to initiate many of them. My confidence was high, my vision was clear, and my path seemed a little straighter than it had in years.
I woke up every day excited about the new direction I had for my life. I was finally starting to see my way out of the ruts I mentioned in my first post. Unfortunately, a trend started to develop. For almost two months, after my “life-changing” sabbatical with the Lord, I cracked open my Bible very few times. I didn’t journal, worship or even pray much. It was a subtle drift, but one day led to two days, then a week, and eventually an entire month had passed and then two.
Looking back, the only way I can explain it is my selfishness. I got the tactical answers I needed from the Lord about a few key areas of life and then I disappeared. Thanks God, I’ll take it from here.
Or to view it another way–I got two months worth of quiet times done in 5 days, so I decided to take some time off. I honestly don’t know what happened for those two months after the sabbatical. I was busy executing, and I never went back to the Source.
This, of course, failed miserably. Months later, I was right back to being worn thin, anxious, discontent, and wandering with very limited vision. I was revisiting the summer camp “high,” I had always experienced as a child. But I was 29 years old at the time–at some point I should be putting away childish things.
Despite my disappearing act, though, the Lord didn’t condemn, but instead He drew me back with His kindness. No condemnation, no guilt — just patiently waiting for me to return like the prodigal son I had become.
So how did the enemy distract me for two months? He did it by having me focus on the good works of the past.
Conversely, how else does the enemy distract me at other times? He does it by having me focus on the sin of my past.
I learned that it’s not whether I look back at the good or the bad parts of my past, but it’s when I live in either that gives the enemy victory.
Editor’s Note: This post is the final post in the “Distracting Ourselves to Death” series. You can find the previous posts here: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, and Part 4.
