I am lazy no more

As I return from vacation, I can say that I've been very lazy. I have taken more naps than I can count. I have said more than once in the last week that I don't feel like doing that and I'm not going to do it.

And guess what...I didn't do it or much of anything else for that matter over the last week.

I have been lazy.

As a little guy, I was very unmotivated and on more than one occasion my dad called me lazy. It's amazing how the smallest of things that our parents say to us has a way of sticking with us.

As a little guy, I really didn't care if anyone called me lazy. As a teenager and as a young adult it bothered me greatly when I was called lazy, because I had reached a point in life where I was now working very hard to make something of my life.

Long story short, somewhere in my teen years I went from unmotivated (I could care less) to driven and it started to really bother me when people called me lazy.

So now as a fully grown adult, I have trouble relaxing and taking it easy (even on vacation). I still here those whispers of my past reminding me (you're lazy). I really and truly feel as if there is something, I ought to be doing, because I'm not allowed to be lazy and unmotivated. My greatest fear is that someone (whoever that may be) will come around the corner and call me out for being lazy.

I mention this little story because Christians more than any other population has this motivation to make things right that were once wrong. Christians have a tendency of being "people pleasers", people fixers, and do-gooders.

Christians more than any other population are acutely aware of their sins (short comings) and want more than anything to make things right or make up for what they have once done wrong.

The hardest truth Christians have to swallow is that there is nothing we can do to make up for our past mistakes. No matter how hard we try our past sins will still be our past sins.

Jesus will forgive us if we ask him to forgive us for our sins. But the toughest part for Christians is whether they have the ability forgive themselves for what they have done or will they let their past sins linger as subtle jabs to their self-esteem?

In my case, Jesus is telling me you have earned the right to be lazy (take a vacation). But can I let go of the voices of my past (and of Satan) that try to remind me, you are still lazy?

Psalm 117 is a very short Psalm, but that Psalm reminds us of one very important truth...Praise the Lord.

When we praise the Lord our focus is no longer on us but it is on our creator. So when we praise the Lord, God will speak truth to us about who and what we truly are and the voices of our past (the voices of lies) will grow silent to the truth of God.

Friends where is your focus and attention in life? Is it on praising God or is it on yourself and the voices of your past?