Cruise control

Don't you love that feature on your car that let's you relax, put your feet up and drive on the highway for miles? I like to drive long distances, but I need cruise control. I'm guessing most people younger than me may be wondering - doesn't every car have cruise control? But I know that everyone older than me drove a car without that amenity among others. My first car was a 1978 Camaro - maroon with black rally stripes. Sort of like this:Man, I loved that car. It had a 305 V8 engine. I washed and waxed it every month I think. But I digress. The point of this post was to talk about cruise control. That Camaro didn't have cruise control.I'm reading The Discipline of Grace by Jerry Bridges right now, and he wrote about a "cruise control" approach to obedience. He wrote, "we press the accelerator pedal of obedience until we have brought our behavior up to a certain level or 'speed.' The level of obedience is most often determined by the behavior standard of other Christians around us. We don't want to lag behind them because we want to be as spiritual as they are. At the same time, we're not eager to forge ahead of them because we wouldn't want to be different. We want to just comfortably blend in with the level of obedience of those around us. Once we have arrived at this comfortable level of obedience, we push the 'cruise control' button in our hearts, ease back, and relax. Our particular Christian culture then takes over and keeps us going at the accepted level of conduct...I fear it is descriptive of many of us much, if not all, of the time."

So true isn't it? Bridges goes on, "This is what it means to love God with all our heart and soul and mind. It means to obey Him with all our heart and soul and mind. It means, in the words of Hebrews 12:14, 'to make every effort...to be holy.' Relentless. Intense. Driven. Consuming. Zealous. Passionate. Bridges explained in the rest of the chapter how to love God with all your heart and soul and mind. But I had to briefly share his point as it resonated with my soul. Can we ever give God everything in this life? I don't know, but I want to give it my best try. I want to live and hold nothing back. I don't want to be on cruise control, ever, except when I drive to ABQ.