Momentary...

As I sat in church yesterday, I came to a realization. After a long week of failure after failure in living the life I was called to live, I was so refreshed to just praise Jesus. There was no trying to live up to expectations, no trying to be the best I could, no relying on whatever strength I could muster... It was true and honest praise for who He is when I am not. No, true and honest praise for who He is. Period.

And I realized that I had been striving all week long. I had been trying to be "good" in my own strength. I had been trying to make up for the previous sin by being better the next time around. I had been failing, then trying the same solution for the same problem the next time - and failing again. I realized that I needed to quit striving, quit working through my own ambitions, and simply lean on him.

It was one of those, "How did I miss this?" and "How am I so dense?" kind of moments. I was so excited to leave church and live in this new attitude, having a refocused mind.

Yet somehow, life hit, and it all left like a whisp of smoke in the wind. It was so strong yesterday, at least yesterday morning it was. Until I made it to the car and thought about all I was going to do that day, things I had to get done and places I had to be. And all of the sudden the person sitting next to me in church, whom I had just been called to love and reach out to, turned into no one more signficant than simply the slow driver I got stuck behind, the guy I impatiently passed on my way out of church as fast as possible. And today, not only is that mindset gone, its history.

Im reminded of how essential it is to seek victory moment-by-moment. If you take one look back, or let your eye off the ball for one second, you are overcome. Life isnt a stroll, its a battle. And when we forget that, the enemy knows hes won.

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Lesson for Today: Tiger is one great golfer. And Ive hit the understatement of the.... well, if ever there was an understatement, that is it.