But These Lessons are so Boring!

John 14:21-26

Jesus said to his disciples: "Whoever has my commandments and observes them is the one who loves me. Whoever loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and reveal myself to him." Judas, not the Iscariot, said to him, "Master, then what happened that you will reveal yourself to us and not to the world?" Jesus answered and said to him, "Whoever loves me will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our dwelling with him. Whoever does not love me does not keep my words; yet the word you hear is not mine but that of the Father who sent me. "I have told you this while I am with you. The Advocate, the Holy Spirit whom the Father will send in my name -- he will teach you everything and remind you of all that I told you."

You know when I decided that I wanted to play the guitar I did the logical thing. I went out and took lessons, but being the strong-willed young man that I was I didn't follow my lessons very well. I would go and the first thing I was taught was to learn the notes in first position. I would try to learn the notes on the street music and play them accordingly. The thing was it was so boring. The material that I was attempting to write at the time was more interesting, more fun, so I would work on my lesson for about 15 minutes and when I had it nailed I would move on to my stuff, the fun stuff. The funny thing was when I went to my next lesson session I would have to cram in the hallway so that I could play the piece I was to have supposed to have learned. I laugh so hard at myself now. Eventually I got frustrated and quit and spent the next 5 years trying to teach myself how to play, unorthodox and with a ton of bad habits.

I read these verses and at first I think, "okay, I'm good. I love Jesus. I follow his word", but then the Holy Spirit comes along and reminds me, "hey didn't you do some gossiping and slandering just the other day?" At that point I place my face firmly in my palm and begin to pray. I have the same problem. The "Jesus Thing" sometimes seems so easy that I wander off to do my things and I get lost in the process. In being lost I walk away from Jesus' way and chooses my own. I don't think Jesus expects us to be perfect overnight, but I do believe that he wants us to continually persevere and not give up. Being a good Christian as I see it is a continual process. Jesus doesn't give up on me and as long as I don't give up on him I will continue to get better and the rewards of love will keep rolling. There are bad days and Satan will work his best to persuade me to give up, but that is why I spend time in daily prayer, reading my Bible and silence with God to stay on the path. The more time that I spend with God the easier it is to follow his way.

Jesus,

I love you. Keep reminding me of my weak spots. I like it, I want to become stronger for you, my family, my church and me. I want to be the man that you know I can become. I don't want to get lazy. I want to be strong. I want to become a saint. I know it's a long road, but that's okay. I want to love like you. I want to share your love for the peace that resides in that is more precious than anything else in this beautiful world that you have made for us. Thank you.

In Jesus Christ's name I pray,

Amen