the missed embrace.

Sin occurs everyday. Whether it is you or it is me or someone else... it happens. Temptation occurs seemingly thousands of times everyday. It happens. In those moments of disobedience to our Heavenly Father, for me at least, it becomes all about me. My inadequacy to stand on my personal promises to God in private moments of prayer. About how I feel like I have let down and disappointed the One who matters most. It becomes about patterns and habits in our lives. And even when we read something like this what do we do? We wonder and try to figure out what it is that the writer is referring to. What are his struggles? What "sin" or "temptation" is he talking about. Well, if you just did that. STOP. Too often it is a practice of self-justification. If someone else's stuff is worse than mine then that makes me less bad. Or if someone else is dealing with the same kind of stuff I have then maybe I am not so yucky of a person after all. Again, STOP.

You don't get points based on my performance just like I don't score better when you fail. Here again, we almost always make it personal... it's about me.

I had this thought this morning as I listened to Donal Miller (Blue Like Jazz guy) and here it is: What if in those moments where we face a choice to do what is right or to do what is self fulfilling, that in that very moment it is not in His eyes a choice about right or wrong but rather an opportunity to embrace Him? Forget you for a moment and try to see you through His eyes. In that moment we call temptation, see it as a call from Heaven to simply grab on to His way. Not a personal fork in the road, which way do I go? It is a moment where we can embrace our Heavenly Father and allow Him to do what only He can do anyway.

Maybe you missed a chance to embrace Him today. The saddest part of that is that moment can never be regained. Not that he will never provide that type of moment again, but that specific moment is gone. Adios. My personal prayer today is "please send me another moment... soon." Send me another opportunity to put me aside and simply embrace You.