The Easy Way

"Do you want the easy way or the hard way?"  I remember saying this to a little boy when I explained the consequence of disobedience.  I tried to  make clear his choices and the consequence.  I made it clear that obedience really was the easy way.  It is a trick of the world that makes us think the hard way is obeying.

In Deuteronomy 8:19 and 20, God explains the "what if" of following, worshipping and bowing down to another god.  He gives a very plain explanation of the consequence.  He compares following after other gods to the "other nations."  The "other nations" were the inhabitants living in the Promised Land before the Israelites arrived.

Some of the other nations were completely and utterly destroyed.  God explained earlier in Deuteronomy (7:22) that some of the other nations would be driven out "little by little."  These people would remain in the Promised Land until the Israelites had multiplied enough to control the wild animals.

I thought about those people.  Perhaps they thought they had survived.  Perhaps they continued to live in their homes.  Perhaps they deluded themselves into thinking they were OK. Yet they now lived in enemy territory.  They were living "on borrowed time".  At some point in the future their purpose, keeping the wild animals in check, would be fulfilled and their consequence would arrive.

This delusion happens to us.  We follow after something other than God and think we're fine.  Yet it is just a matter of time before the consequence of disobedience catches us.

I may think I can choose to follow anything but if it's not following God, I'm living in enemy territory and I'm  living with the "ticking time bomb of consequence."  The sin of following after something other than God is sin and it will own me.

Today I ask myself "Do I want to live in enemy territory?" (the hard way) or "Do I want  to follow after God?" (the easy way).  There really is no hope for  me on my own.  If I look at people around me who intentionally live against God the destruction may not be immediate, it may take years or generations, but these verses in Deuteronomy remind  me, it is certain.

This morning as I moved the computer to my chair to write, I noticed puppy chew marks on the cord.  I wish I could explain to the puppies the danger of chewing through an electrical cord.  But I don't speak "puppy".  Hallelujah, God speaks my language and has provided The Word and life experiences so I could learn that it really is the easy way to follow Him, no matter what the world tries to tell me.

"I choose easy." The words that warm a mother's (and God's) heart!