I had enjoyed the shore life for a number of years.  After all, it was what I knew and if I do say so myself, I was pretty good at it.  I was doing my usual chair at the waters edge, water washing up over my feet, reading a good book when movement caught my eye.  It was one of those paddle board folks.  They were cruising down the beach in the blue water with dolphins jumping beside them.  Wow.  I could get into that.  I might even give up my comfort on the shore in exchange for a cruise like that.  But how was I to get there?  After all, I had no board, no knowledge, nothing to lead me to believe that I could be cruising with dolphins.     

     I closed my book and gave the situation my full attention.  There were young and old trying to learn this new skill.  I watched as people struggled to get up on the board and watched as they struggled even more to stay on.  Time and again they fell off, fell off, fell off.  Some quit and returned to the shore while others kept at it refusing to give up.   There definitely appeared to be more falling off than cruising in the blue.  

     This is a pretty good picture of the spiritual life.  Often those professing Christ seem to be falling off.  So why try?  We are busy people, so why take the time to attempt something different when there appears to be so little success?  But wait, out of the corner of our eye we catch that special person.  They are different, and we really like the way they cruise through life.  They have problems just like you and me, but they cruise through them instead of being thrown off by them.  They seem undaunted by their situations and circumstances.  The internal battle begins to rage as we contemplate between “I’m not sure that hope is for me” and “it sure would be nice to cruise like that.”

     I call this bullying.  Yep.  I did say bullying.  You have an enemy that would love to keep you thinking life will never be better.  He wants you to believe that what is will always be.  He wants you to believe that different special person could never be you.  He wants to keep you eating out of his hand of sorrow and defeat.  Did you know the enemy is using the same old tactic he has always used?  There is nothing new here.  That is why God warns us in His Word:

“But if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all generously and without reproach, and it will be given to him.  But he must ask in faith without any doubting, for the one who doubts is like the surf of the sea, driven and tossed by the wind.  For that man ought not to expect that he will receive anything from the Lord, being a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.”  James 1:5-8 NASB 

     So this is what keeps us falling off.  It is what caused Eve to fall off.  It is what caused Adam to fall off.  When our focus shifts, our attention is diverted, we try to have God plus something else, when we are distracted by the lie that God isn’t Who He says He is, it always leads to instability and we crash.  Over time, those crashes become increasingly painful and we sit in our pain believing this is it.

     It doesn’t have to be this way.  James tells us to to ask God who gives to all generously and without reproach and it will be given to him.  This is the way to end the crash and burn and it is as simple as asking the right source and then believe.  Ask…..Believe    Ask…..Believe    Ask…..Believe  I think I can do that.

     Cruise or Crash?  Double minded or Single minded?  It is either one or the other.  How many crashes will it take until you decide to ask and believe?  It is time to ReSet?