Are you On Task?

Have you ever found yourself on Auto pilot?

Driving along thinking about something else, miles away instead of what you were doing, namely driving.

I used to drive in Canterbury a lot, very long straight roads.
One of my commutes was about 100 km, taking about an hour on a road that may have two bends in it. It’s straight, very long and very straight.

I would start off and in a short amount of time find myself at times wondering where on the road I was how close to the destination I was. I had been off in my mind somewhere else and couldn’t remember the landmarks I had passed.
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This isn’t a safe place to be.

Sometimes, in our journey as Jesus followers, we can  be doing the right things, but it’s like we’re on autopilot. In our minds we’ve drifted off somewhere else.

Ever sat in a prayer meeting that had the atmosphere of a fish and chip shop waiting room?
Me too.
Have you ever started praying for it to end soon?
I’d almost admit that too.
What can cause us in our walk with Jesus to become distracted or lose focus is sometimes the complexity around faith. Do we do this, or that?

We like hosting people. We recently had an Israeli couple stay with us that were on the more Jewish Orthodox end of the scale. She asked if she could kosher our oven, My wife said “sure!… what does that entail?’ and then our Israeli guest proceeded to clean our oven and put it on the hottest setting for thirty minutes.
I was keen for her to kosher everything after that. We’ve got a microwave that desperately could do with a thorough Kosher treatment.  We talked for ages with this amazing couple. A lot of what we discussed was the law’s they kept as part of being kosher. There so many of them! Before this lovely Israeli couple left, they asked my wife, What laws do you keep as Christians?
Laura replied, “Just one; ‘Love one another’, that’s what Jesus taught”.
Brilliant woman my wife.

John recorded Jesus words. John was an elderly man, the only disciple to reach old age, He perhaps sat and recounted his version of events with a scribe. The three years He spent with Jesus, the miracles, the signs and wonders, and talking, eating with the risen Jesus.

In John’s account, he brings forth the time when shortly before his death, Jesus gave a new command;

34 “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. John 13.

​‘As I have loved you’. John probably paused when he dictated this to the scribe, within hours of saying ‘as I have loved you’, Jesus showed his ultimate love for his friends in dying for them.
When all hope was lost, when everyone un-followed Jesus following his death, hope dawned. Jesus rose from the dead.
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What did love cost Jesus? everything.
What has he called us to do?
Love one another. When faith seems so hard, or like your in a mist that you can’t hold onto, remember love one another and ask yourself the question;
What does love require of me in this situation?

Stripping back the sometimes complexity of faith to what Jesus taught, helps us to stay centered on what really matters. That’s why the gospel spread so quickly, that why it was so transportable. It’s not a huge list of do’s and don’ts. It’s what the whole world craves.
Love.
Lived out. offered freely.
If you find yourself on the drift in faith. refocus on the command Jesus gave and love one another.

Dave Maharey