Default

January 11, 2023

One of the surest ways to tell that God is at work in you is when you do the right thing when you’d rather do something else. I’m no super-saint, but that happened to me today. I was actually surprised by it. I’ve been preparing for Sunday’s sermon (Yes—I’m preaching Sunday! Hooray!) by thinking about what is my default when I’m not deliberately thinking about something “spiritual,” like a sermon. 

I was driving into town, mulling the sermon over in my head, but if I stopped for even a moment, my thoughts turned to that Ruger Mini-14 I’ve had my eye on, or the absurdity of our governor considering banning gas furnaces and appliances in the future just as gas production is at an all time high. There’s a dozen or more personal or political topics that my mind could as easily default to, but the point is, my default is not Jesus Christ. 

In life, when I think of where I find rest, peace, safety, and belonging, it’s when I’m home. When I was pastoring, I put plenty of time in at the office and out in the community, but that wasn’t my default. It’s possible to work for Jesus, to read the Bible and pray, and still not have him be your default, the place where your mind and heart rest when trouble or anxiety comes or when not actively engaged in something that requires concentration. 

Bringing every thought captive to Christ (2 Corinthians 10:4-5) is constant work for me. My thoughts are like little calves running here and there. As soon as I get one corralled, another breaks loose, and I have to rope it in. It’s not that they’re always bad thoughts, although some of them are, but I want Christ to be my home, that place to which I naturally gravitate. I think that’s what Jesus meant when he said, “Abide in me”— in other words, “Make me your home.”

Today when I deliberately turned those random thoughts towards Christ, instead of drooling over that Mini 14, I wired money to my friend in Mongolia who is soon heading out into the steppes on another evangelistic mission trip. God was at work. How do I know? I did the right thing instead of what I had wanted to do. And it was all because at least for the moment, Christ was my default, my home.

Lest it sound like I’m bragging, I must add that my thoughts and my mouth left home for awhile just before bed. Linda and I had a misunderstanding, and I blurted out harsh words to her. Now I must apologize and ask forgiveness. This abiding business is harder than it looks, but home in Christ is where I want to be so that my heart can be her home.