Complacent Grace

What is the third thing you do when you are driving in the winter and you start sliding around on a slippery road?  (The first thing you do is correct the problem.  The second thing you do is take a couple of deep breaths and let your heart settle down.)  You slow down.  You pay more attention to the road conditions and to the cars around you. You begin to believe that YOU can have an accident.  You are shaken from your complacency; shaken from thinking that nothing will happen to you because nothing has.

Complacency seems to be a human characteristic.  There are so many areas of our lives that we just settle into and become complacent.  Parenting - until one day we wake up and our child is suspended from school.  Marriage - until one day we are told by our spouse that she doesn't really love us any more.  Work - until we find our selves on the receiving end of a pink slip.

Spiritually.....  Our relationship with God.  When we do receive a wake up call?  When are we shaken from complacency?  I think there are three times when we can be shaken.  First, at funerals - when we are faced with the fact that we are going to die one day.  Secondly, when we die and stand before our creator and the events of our lives are reviewed.  Thirdly, when we look at scripture and allow the Holy Spirit to work within our soul.

The first, funerals, typically are few an far between when we are young and really have the energy to change.  The second, death - well, then it is too late to do anything.  The last is something that we can control.  We can pick up the scriptures and be challenged.  We have the ability to read.  We have the ability to allow the Holy Spirit to speak to us.

So why don't we choose to shake ourselves out of complacency?  Why don't we pick up the scriptures?  Because we are complacent.  Vicious circle isn't it.

I find myself too often content, complacent.  I have been saved from sin and from eternal damnation, isn't that enough?  I mean, why is it important for me not to be complacent.  I will write more about this in my next post.  Stay tuned.....