“Absence makes the heart grow fonder, but it sure makes the rest of you lonely.”
-Charles Schulz
Getting out of the routine of physical exercise is not a good thing. Sadly I must admit that’s where I am right now. It’s not that I don’t like exercise or don’t need it, it’s just that I am out of the habit of doing it. I have forgotten the benefits of carrying less weight and having more energy.
If absence makes the heart grow fonder, why am I not drawn to the gym at 6:00 a.m. every morning? Why is it that when my schedule was fuller and my time was scarcer, I had time to work in my workouts? If I were truly committed to exercise right now, my intentions to work out would be replaced with the behavior of working out. Now my workouts allude me, while lesser things seduce me.
Isn’t this the way it sometimes is with our relationship with God?
He created you and me with a God-shaped hole in our hearts that only He can fill. In the absence of the One who is fond of us and our pursuit of Him, our hearts grow fonder of lesser things; social media, emails, television, wine, food, pornography, sports, hobbies, work, etc. And it’s not that He’s left us; we have left Him (see Dt 31:6).
The writer of the hymn, “Come Thy Fount of Every Blessing,” reminds us that we are “prone to wander; prone to leave the God we love.” We are lulled into complacency one poor wandering choice at a time, only to wake up somewhere down the road asking, “How did I get here?” Chuck Swindoll summed up our wandering half-heartedness the best I’ve ever heard it: “The problem with a living sacrifice is that it has a tendency to crawl off the alter.”
King David wrote, “I will praise you, Lord, with all my heart; I will tell of all the marvelous things you have done (Ps 9:1).” Did you get that? “I will praise you with ALL my heart.” Giving half-hearted praise to the God who gave His all for us isn’t praise at all. It’s the lip service of a hardened heart; the living sacrifice that is crawling off the altar; the gym membership that isn’t getting used.
Absence makes the heart grow fonder only of the things we are truly committed to. What is my level of commitment to the One who gave it all for me? What is yours?
Lord, help us align our actions with our intentions. May we not be lukewarm but whole-hearted in our pursuit of you.
See you at the gym!
Play to win this week in the game that really counts!
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