Stop Thinking

How easy it to live without Jesus!

I've been watching and learning for most of my life, and I've discovered that it's really pretty simple to do. People do it every day. All you have to do is not think. Well not exactly stop thinking altogether, but do your best not to consider anything spiritual in nature. All that stuff that we don't really understand? Ignore it. It's a piece of cake!

I can easily wake up in the morning, eat my breakfast, do my work, have lunch and a conversation, finish the work day, come home and watch TV and go to bed. If I don't like what's on TV, I can go to a movie or read a book or mow the lawn or work in the garden or play with the kids or watch a ball game or work on the car or play cards or search the Internet for "Drunken Bobsled Spectacular" or any number of things. The world is full of activities that will take up my time -- often without me even realizing it.

Spending my day without acknowledging Jesus is habit-forming.

Living without Jesus is simple if I talk like I appreciate Him. Prayer? What's the point when I can just look spiritual enough to fool my friends. I can even spend an hour in church on Sunday or in some kind of home Bible study group and just go through the motions. I really don't have to do anything more than pay Jesus lip service in front of the people I want to express.

Living without Jesus is simple. Until...

When tragedy strikes, ignoring Him isn't so easy. I'm faced with the "WHY?" question, and I can't ask Jesus that question if I don't consider Him in a position to give you an answer.

So the solution becomes -- again -- filling up the emptiness with other things. Psychology, therapy, other people, anger, wild and outrageous behavior -- they all are poor substitutes for Jesus unless I... stop thinking again. For some odd reason, we must be reminded continually of God's presence to remember Him unless we have developed the habit of thinking.

The Christian walk is a habit. It's not mindless. In fact, it's just the opposite. To live without Christ is mindless. But when we let our Christian habits become drowned out by all that the world heaps upon us, every entertainment and diversion that can be imagined, that is how we live without Jesus. Instead we must stop ignoring the spiritual and stop simply giving it lip service. And beyond that, we must be a living and breathing example to others not to stop thinking.