Against The Grain

Do you ever feel that what you are striving for is always just out of reach?

"Whom will he teach knowledge, and to whom will he explain the message? Those who are weaned from milk, those taken from the breast? For it is precept upon precept, precept upon precept, line upon line, line upon line, here a little, there a little." Truly, with stammering lip and with alien tongue he will speak to this people, to whom he has said, "This is rest; give rest to the weary; and this is repose"; yet they would not hear. Therefore the word of the Lord will be to them, "Precept upon precept, precept upon precept, line upon line, line upon line, here a little, there a little;" in order that they may go, and fall backward, and be broken, and snared, and taken. Therefore hear the word of the Lord , you scoffers who rule this people in Jerusalem. Because you have said, "We have made a covenant with death, and with Sheol we have an agreement; when the overwhelming scourge passes through it will not come to us; for we have made lies our refuge, and in falsehood we have taken shelter"; therefore thus says the Lord God, See, I am laying in Zion a foundation stone, a tested stone, a precious cornerstone, a sure foundation: "One who trusts will not panic." - Isaiah 28:9-16

Sometimes the answer can be very close, yet we fail to hear or see it.

Instead, we look around and see what others are doing and we assume that they know.

So, we follow when we should be blazing a trail of our own.

I am reading the book, Think Again by Adam Grant.  In it, he tells stories about people who have learned to rethink some very basic and fundamental aspects and beliefs in their lives.

These are people who find that what should be working is suddenly failing and instead of going down with the ship, they have the guts to toss out everything they knew to be true and try something different.

In some instances, that decision is the difference between death and survival.

When I read Isaiah, I get the feeling God is trying to get us to toss out what isn't working and have the courage to go someplace new.

But we have trouble hearing that message.

It goes against the grain, so like fire jumpers who suddenly find themselves trying to outrun a blaze, we don't think to unload our heavy gear and increase our chances for survival.

Instead, we hold on too long and perish with all our equipment strapped to our backs.

Maybe God is trying to get us to unload the heavy burdens we carry so we can think clearly and rethink what is important in our lives.

More to come...