Calgon, Take Me Away!

Some of you may recall this late 70's commercial.

Today in this 2019 world the 1970's seem to be so far away now. Some of you reading this might not have been born in the 70's, 80's or the 90's or even later. This commercial brings me delight because when our first daughter who was about 3 years old at the time that it aired came out of her bedroom and said very dramatically "Calgon, take me away". It's one of those parental memories that never stops giving joy to the heart. Now really, we all know that bubble bath's are not going to take us away from life's problems. We know that life doesn't work that way. The traffic, the boss, the baby and the dog are all still a part of our daily routines, but in this era of our lives we've complicated them way more than we should. How so? We are more involved with running our kids to and fro to dance, soccer, football, wrestling, etc. We've created technology to make our lives easier. We have cell phones and internet at our fingertips, we have email so we can communicate more efficiently. But does this really make our lives simpler? My opinion is no, it doesn't make life simple. Growing up on a small farm with large gardens, cattle, pigs, turkeys, ducks, horses, dogs and cats my brothers and I had responsibilities. Someone had to feed those animals and milk the cows. We made our own butter and pasteurized milk. We lived simple but worked hard. As kids, we also played hard in all seasons. The only time we were not allowed to play outside was during a lightning storm. I remember my buddies and I playing in the timber, one would climb up into a tree and the others would proceed to cut it down. We called it "Riding Trees". Sounds safe doesn't it? No one ever got hurt. Here is my point, while football, baseball, dance, soccer, church and other activities like that are great we have replaced simple with complication. Social media keeps us in contact with all our friends and relatives through a technological wonder. There is something missing from our lives though, especially when, first thing in the morning we have to look at our phones to check our FB or Twitter. Some of you say, but I'm the head of a department at my job and I need to check my emails and calls. I am not discounting that because I have the same task in the morning. Carol and I just recently came back from a conference to help give us some insights for the ministry. This was my biggest take away from the conference. Bob has been trying to get in front of God. When we try to master God's plan for our lives all sorts of things "will" go wrong. If you are a believer in Jesus Christ then you should also know that God the Father has a clear direction for our lives. The Fathers Spirit lives within us and should be our GPS to get us to our destination. When we turn off our GPS or our Google map......what happens? We get lost, we have no clue how to get there, we simply lose our direction and can't reach our intended final stop. This is what God tells me in Psalm 46, Bob, be still and just know, that I am God. 1 Peter 5 says "Cast all your anxiety on Him, because He cares for you". I urge all of you to make time for God every day. He longs to hear from you and wants your heart to be His home.