Getting Aligned

 Let us examine our ways and test them, and let us return to the Lord. Lamentations 3:40 (NIV)

I do not consider myself a handyman in any sense of the word. While homeownership has forced me to confront this shortcoming and learn my way around a home improvement store, I don’t think it will ever come naturally to me. In fact, it’s often the smallest and simplest repairs that prove to be the most frustrating. Case in point, my son has a bicycle with a misaligned back wheel and a chain that has no intention of staying on, and I have very little hope of providing a lasting solution. At some point in the near future, I am going to have to humble myself and take the bike to someone who is able to restore it to its former glory.

At some point in the past year, your life with Christ may have felt a bit like a bike that can’t keep its chain on. At times your faith may have gone off the rails and you aren’t quite sure how to get it back on track! In moments like these, you and I are faced with a decision. Do we throw up our hands in defeat, or do we press in and search for a lasting and permanent solution? Or, to speak with greater precision, do we recognize our inadequacies and look to the only one who can truly heal us and set us back on track?

The first step to healing is identifying the places in your life that need repair. Though the Lord alone is our source of freedom and life, he invites us to regularly and intentionally examine our way of living and identify places of misalignment or disrepair. As Christians, we turn to the Lord and invite him to begin his work of renovation in our hearts and lives. As the Psalmist says, “Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my thoughts” (Psalm 139:23).

As we invite the Lord to lead us in his paths, we must also faithfully and diligently tend to our response to his invitation. We must have a regular habit of self-examination, testing our way of life, and when misaligned and bent out of shape, return to the Lord for our healing and our hope. This is the only way to stay on track.