A little consideration …

It seems as if there is an invisible switch next to the snooze button on the alarm clock marked “automatic pilot.”

As soon as we hit snooze for the last time, we launch ourselves into a thoughtless routine. We get up and start doing many of the same things we did yesterday, and the day before that, and the day before that, and the day before that … and the day before that … and the week before that, and the year before that.

So much of what we do is ordinary and routine, which lends itself to being able to be executed with little thought.

Therein lies a source of some our spiritual problems: we don’t think much.

In a single sentence, the Apostle Paul challenges such behavior: “Carefully determine what pleases the Lord,” Ephesians 5:10.

Paul would have us live our lives with the auto pilot turned off, and our minds turned on, suggesting we give purposeful consideration of how we could live in such a way that would actually please God.

When was the last time you sat and gave that a ponder?

Paul goes a little deeper in Ephesians 5:15-17, “So be careful how you live. Don’t live like fools, but like those who are wise. Make the most of every opportunity in these evil days. Don’t act thoughtlessly, but understand what the Lord wants you to do.”

It’s a good thing to not take yourself too seriously. It’s not so good to not have a thoughtful core from which you can be light-hearted. In today’s church culture, it’s trendy to live a little recklessly.

But it’s a foolish thing to live thoughtlessly. Or, as the old saying goes, “You snooze, you lose!”

What do you do to consider and understand what pleases God? How are you careful about how you live? Or do you run on auto pilot and hope for the best?

Scotty