How deep is your rut?  And are you ready to climb out?

A few months back, when my grandson wasn’t sleeping through the night, his doctor told my daughter that she would have to reset his clock.  She asked what that meant and the doctor explained that she would have to keep him up all day until around 9 pm and then let him go to sleep, then he would sleep through the night.  She tried this one night and it was too exhausting, so she let him go to sleep.  Then she enlisted the help of three more people who took turns keeping him awake – which is no easy task for a three month old – and his clock was reset!

I found this very interesting.  Bad habits are broken only by new habits.   In the midst of this I discovered that many of us need to reset our clock.  I think sometimes we get in a rut.  Pastor Mack Louallen described a rut one day at church.  Imagine in your mind, if you are walking around and around a mountain, a rut will form and the longer you walk in that rut, the deeper it gets.  The deeper it gets, the harder it is to get out of.  And so it goes with some of us.  

Do you ever feel like you are in a rut?  Has it been a long time, or at least long enough that it seems nearly impossible to get out of?  I have been there – sometimes I still get in a rut.  For me, I get too busy and I go around and around and the more I try to stop being busy, the busier I seem to get, which leaves me no time for God.  I go around and around and my rut becomes so deep that’s its hard to get out of.  Sort of like little Bryson, who is used to waking up every two hours, being forced awake for 6 hours so he can sleep 6 – 8 hours. 

The only way out of the rut is to do something drastic to change the circumstances, it may be hard, it may be uncomfortable, you may not even want to do it – but if you want out of the rut, change is vital.

Are you seeing the things you are praying for come to pass?  If not, change is required.  I can’t think of any better time to reset your clock than at the beginning of a new year.  Are you happy and fulfilled with the way things went for you in 2006?  If not, reset your clock.  Make changes.  Make better choices.  Get your priorities in order.  Do things different and you will see different results.

How are your priorities?  They should be God, family, church, work, etc.  God first.  Always put God first and He will take care of the rest.  That sounds simple enough, but first, you must climb out of the rut and begin a new walk.  The only way to climb out, is to climb up. 

God always takes you up.  You have to make a choice that things are going to change and you are going to do everything in your power to step toward that change, to climb out of the rut you are in and then God will do the rest.