Bashing Your Computer With a Baseball Bat

Suggested Reading: Deuteronomy 12:1-8

There's a scene in the movie Fireproof that is memorable for its radical nature. In the movie, Caleb Holt has decided to make one last ditch effort to save his marriage before throwing in the towel by following the daily advice in a journal given to him by his father. He commits to 40 days of actively loving his wife in an attempt to save their marriage. When he realizes that pornography is one of the things disrupting his marriage, he takes the computer outside and bashes it to pieces with a baseball bat, then leaves a note in the place of the computer that reads, "I love you more."

When God instructed the Israelites how to conduct themselves when they took over the Promised Land, God told them, "Destroy completely all the places where the nations that you are driving out worship their gods...tear down their altars, smash their sacred pillars, burn up their Asherah poles, cut down the carved images of their gods, and wipe out their names from every place" (Deuteronomy 12:2-3, NLT). God didn't command this because he was afraid that the Israelites would turn to other gods, but because he knew they would. Anytime we allow anything a place in our lives that can compete with our devotion to God, chances are it will. The only thing we can do to remove that possibility is to completely remove the competition. You see, Caleb Holt didn't destroy that computer because he was following a journal's advice and just blithely decided he didn't need it anymore. He found himself in a place where the urge to go to that forbidden website was so strong he realized the computer was controlling him rather than the other way around.

No matter what it is that competes for our attention and affection, the only safe course of action is to completely remove it from our lives. Whether it is pornography, like in Caleb's case, or alcohol, or an unhealthy relationship, or that dream job, or your past, sometimes the only way to make sure it doesn't destroy your relationship with God is to completely remove it. And the thing is, you can't wait until it has control of you. At that point it is too late. You have to remove it from your life before it's too much for you to handle.

Don't wait to get rid of anything that threatens to damage your relationship with God. God will always have the power to bring you back, but life is a lot easier if you don't get that far.

Battling the Waves with Sleep Inducing Parasites

Suggested Reading: Mark 6:35-50

There is a tenth season episode of Stargate SG-1 where the team encounters a parasite that stimulates the parts of the brain that induce sleep. The parasite fed off of the chemicals the body produces during sleep. Due to the parasite's nature, once a victim fell asleep, they never woke up, so the team had to struggle to stay awake over a course of several days while a parasite was stimulating their brain to make them need to sleep. They took stimulants, drank coffee and tag-teamed each other trying to stay awake. One of the most impressive things about the episode was how sleepy each of the actors managed to appear.

We've all been really tired at some point or another and the longer you go, the more you just want to sleep. You don't want to eat. You don't want to talk. You just want to sleep. Mark chapter 6 shows the disciples in just such a state. They had all just returned from their missionary training adventures and were reporting to Jesus but the crowds were so great (apparently their missions had been successes) that they couldn't even eat or rest.  So Jesus had them get in a boat and sail a distance away to avoid the crowds.

When they reached the other shore, word had already spread and crowds were waiting on them. Jesus ended up teaching them so long that the disciples suggested he send them away before they fainted from hunger. Instead, we got the miracle of the feeding of the five thousand.  When that was done, Jesus sent the disciples away in the boat to rest while he dismissed the crowds. Before returning to the disciples, Jesus spent some time in prayer on a mountain. Then, "he saw the disciples straining at the oars, because the wind was against them. About the fourth watch of the night he went out to them, walking on the lake. He was about to pass by them, but when they saw him walking on the lake, they thought he was a ghost" (Mark 6:48-49, HCSB). The fourth watch was between 3:00 & 6:00 am.

So these disciples, who were already exhausted, spent the entire night rowing, battling the wind. But that moment, when they were exhausted, weak, and at the very end of their strength, is when they saw Jesus walking on the water and when, according to Matthew's account, Peter actually got to walk on water himself (Matthew 14).

You may be very exhausted right now.  You may be at the end of your rope with no more energy to do anything. You may be on the point of giving up because you don't have the strength to do anything but quit. But when we are at our weakest is when God tends to do big things.  No matter how tired you are, hang in there. You never know when God is going to show you something miraculous.