Don’t Be Confused

In a church I used to serve, one day a preschooler was walking down the hall with her mother. She saw me coming, pointed at me, and said, “Look Mommy, there goes God!”

From time to time we get confused, don’t we? Not just preschoolers but all of us. We allow people or things or ideas to take the place of the God of all creation. If we are not careful, we misplace our hope.

The scriptures are full of warnings against idolatry. People of faith have long recognized that it is God alone who can save us. Money, power, political agendas, military strength, and even theology are temporal and limited. Our ultimate hope has to be bigger or our lives become small and skewed.

This is one of the reasons why prayer and worship are so important to me. I can so easily find myself worried, anxious, or disappointed when I place my hope in the wrong things. Setting aside time to recenter, helps me gain perspective.

Today, let us pause again to remember the One on whom we can depend, on whom we can hope, the One before whom we humble ourselves and give all.

Let us pray: It is easy to let the wrong things take priority in our lives, O God. Sometimes we allow ideas or things to dominate our thinking and our doing, and we lose perspective. We get out of harmony with you and with others around us. Help us today to recenter, as we return now our hearts to you. We ask in Jesus’ name. Amen.