My Mine Field

Oct 6, 2009
In my mind, when I picture taking a walk with Jesus, I usually imagine the Garden of Eden. Walking in peaceful beauty. It's quiet, calm, perfect, and we're softly talking, heads close together, like close friends would. However, my walk with the Lord is more like walking through a mine field.
A large field where dangers are hidden by the enemy, friends, or even myself. Some have already blown up, and in their place now lies a deep pit. Sometimes, I'm in the middle of the field, which is where it is most tricky, trying to keep my trust in Him and walk the small path between things that could really throw off my journey. Other times, I'm blown all the way back to the beginning of the field, trying to make my way starting all over again, dodging the pits from the mines I've already stepped on in the past
I have the same pits that seem to occur repeatedly, mommy guilt that Satan uses against us, exhaustion, frustration, lack of patience, and the biggest one for me that seems to be the bomb hidden in the most places, living by rules and not a relationship.
Recently, I was sitting at work on a rainy day, which at a golf course is the most boring thing you could possibly think of, and remembered that I had an application I downloaded (for free) on my iPhone that has flashcards. I have three different sets of verses that I work on to memorize. (anyone that has an iPhone, I highly recommend it. it's called Flipr. It's free, and you can memorize God's word anywhere you are!) One of the verses I learned that day was 1 Peter 3:12. "For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous and His ears are attentive to their prayer, but the face of the Lord is against those who do evil."
After reading that, I sat thinking on it for a bit and couldn't stop thinking about that word, righteous. The Pharisees believed they were righteous...but they obviously weren't. In fact, several times, the word "righteous" isn't meant as a compliment in the New Testament. So, I went to the handy dandy biblegateway.com. Did you know the word righteous appears in 512 verses of the Bible and 135 of the New Testament? Important word. In the verses I went through in the New Testament talking about righteousness, the definitions were so different when used in the context. There's an awesome website that breaks down the Greek and English text and from using that, it seems half of the time, the word would seem more like observing of laws that righteous, while the other times it has to do with a relationship.
Okay, boring stuff aside, the first righteous is the thorn in my side. All along, I fall into the pit that's blown me away countless times, sitting there, looking up and wondering how I did it again? How am I here, when I KNEW the hole was there because it's where I was blown up last time? All along, I should have been sporting the new meaning of righteous, a relationship. I've found that in the times of my life where I'm leaning hard on Jesus, confused, contemplative, listening and not speaking, I fall into those holes much less. I get blown up much less. Why? He knows where the mines are hidden. He knows the secret nooks and crannies of my heart that are ready to blow at any second and He's my own personal deactivator. He can deactivate the mine before it causes me, or anyone else I may be walking with at the time, harm. How wonderful is that? The God that wants to wash my feet when I should be washing His with my tears, goes before me, when I finally ask, and turns me from places that I could be harmed...or fall into a pit and sit, spiritually empty for days or longer. Sigh...what a God we serve :)