One of my favorite Johnny Cash songs is “I walk the Line.” The song is about fidelity. Granted, the context is different, but the intent and meaning are the same: to be true, don’t falter. Verse 6 paints a picture of what James is addressing in his letter, and that is obedience.
One of the things I love about living in Michigan is “Michigan summers.” Even though we never lived in the state while I was growing up (I was a military kid), we always would spend our summers “up north” at the family lake house. Late mornings and long afternoons were the only schedule we had. My brothers and I would spend hours playing in the water. We would get on our inflatable rafts and just float. It wouldn’t take long before I was dozing off, and I found myself just going along with wherever the wind was going. I would become oblivious to the fact that I was getting either blown farther out in the lake or into the cattails. Then it became a matter of me scrambling to get back to shore. And it was never a straight line.
Our faith can at times be like that raft. We ask God but we don’t always trust that he will answer. Our faith then becomes prone to the winds of the world. That is perhaps my biggest struggle. I am a bit of a control freak, and if things don’t happen on the schedule that I have set, I start to doubt about whether God is going to answer. There is great danger to that. It makes us feel more self-sufficient and less dependent on God. And when we become less dependent upon God, we lower our expectation of him, we become easily swayed. God calls upon us to bring everything to him in prayer. Not just the biggies, but everything. And when we make him our focal point, we walk straight to him. But if we look at our feet, we start wandering, often completely unaware until we find ourselves in the cattails. As James warns, “Such a person is double-minded and unstable in all they do.” Walk a straight line. Trust, believe, and obey. God is always faithful!
One of the things I love about living in Michigan is “Michigan summers.” Even though we never lived in the state while I was growing up (I was a military kid), we always would spend our summers “up north” at the family lake house. Late mornings and long afternoons were the only schedule we had. My brothers and I would spend hours playing in the water. We would get on our inflatable rafts and just float. It wouldn’t take long before I was dozing off, and I found myself just going along with wherever the wind was going. I would become oblivious to the fact that I was getting either blown farther out in the lake or into the cattails. Then it became a matter of me scrambling to get back to shore. And it was never a straight line.
Our faith can at times be like that raft. We ask God but we don’t always trust that he will answer. Our faith then becomes prone to the winds of the world. That is perhaps my biggest struggle. I am a bit of a control freak, and if things don’t happen on the schedule that I have set, I start to doubt about whether God is going to answer. There is great danger to that. It makes us feel more self-sufficient and less dependent on God. And when we become less dependent upon God, we lower our expectation of him, we become easily swayed. God calls upon us to bring everything to him in prayer. Not just the biggies, but everything. And when we make him our focal point, we walk straight to him. But if we look at our feet, we start wandering, often completely unaware until we find ourselves in the cattails. As James warns, “Such a person is double-minded and unstable in all they do.” Walk a straight line. Trust, believe, and obey. God is always faithful!