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These are all of the articles tagged with the keyword "Christmas".
Living in Denial
Posted: January 2, 2008
Category: Pastor Steve's Blog
Comments: 0 Comments
TAGS: Christmas, denial, new year
So, I’m headed up to my parents home. A little tired after all of the Christmas season rush and anxious for some days of relaxation and spending time with family. I take a left turn on to Highway 36, leading out of Temple, for the last portion of the trip. I think I see a sign for 60(at least assume), and that the sign turns to 70 a ways up the road (again assumption). This is a beautiful four lane road compared to the two lane roads that I was on before. It felt nice to kick on the cruise control with the wider open space and I was looking forward to pulling into their ranch in just a few minutes. Just then, an officer of the law does a u-turn from the other direction and comes up behind me! I’m a little shocked that he stays there and doesn’t go around me to find some law-breaker. I pull over and he stays right there with me. He walks up and asks the question, “Do you know why I stopped you?” I respond, “not really” and he lets me know that I was going over 70 miles an hour in a 60 mile an hour zone.
Now the denial kicks in. “That can’t be,” “I’ve driven this many times,” “When did they change the signs?” I’m feeling argumentative about the speed he told me..but it doesn’t matter. I was going to fast. Busted. Life is like that. Whether we know it or not…we are going out of the zone in life and someone tells us that we’ve moved beyond the boundaries. It doesn’t just happen with speed zones. It’s life zones. How do we react? If you’re like me. It’s denial. It wasn’t me, it isn’t my problem, they have a problem, it’s a mistake. But denial doesn’t help. We often become defensive and push people off and don’t really consider what is happening in our own life.
As we begin a New Year, it is good for us to consider our life, our attitudes and our actions. Not only on what we’re doing today, but also on how we will deal with the issues that come up in our life? Will we be so arrogant that we will act as though we never do anything wrong? Will we try to live in Denial rather than approach the truth of who and what we are? It’s a good time to think about what we confess in worship. We often confess that we have sinned in thought, word, and deed. As we say that, it’s good for us for us to consider our very motives. Our we open to our own failings and short-sightedness? Or are we going to live in denial? Reading 1 John 1:7,8 and consider the question…can we live in denial and how has God been faithful to me?
