Change,  Christian Life,  Culture,  Decisions,  Discipleship,  Emotional Health,  Life,  Personal Growth,  Purpose,  Spiritual Disciplines

Aligning with God

I watched a video recently while trying to understand the concept of wheel alignment on my car. I’ve had many alignments performed through the years, but I’ve never understood what the mechanics are doing. They’ve used words like toe, camber, and caster, but I’m clueless about what that means.

I know ultimately, aligning the wheels on my car means my tires are adjusted to the proper position for safety, performance, and wear. These professionals know just the correct numbers that define the standard, and they change my tires to that standard.

I had alignment on my mind because I’m working on a new book with my brother about spiritual health. I was thinking about what it means to be in alignment with God. God is the master mechanic. What would He say about your alignment?

Spiritual alignment is essential if we want to be healthy Christians. Remember, God is the standard. He doesn’t adjust to us. We adjust to Him. We want our hearts to connect to His. We want our passions to reflect His. Our purpose for living should relate to what He is doing in the world.

Different things can cause us to get out of alignment. Sometimes, Christians aren’t aligned from the start. I guess we could call that ignorance. New believers don’t know how to make the adjustments in their lives, which is why discipleship is essential.

Your car may need an alignment if you hit a bump in the road, like a pothole. Life is full of potholes. Sometimes, Christians go through a jarring experience, like losing a job, facing a health crisis, or a personal failure. It’s easy to run from God in those circumstances and get even further out of line. When we hit one of life’s potholes, we must intentionally work on our spiritual health and spend some time alone with God and His Word.

A bad tire can also cause the other tires of your car to get out of line. In other words, one tire will affect the others. It reminds me of what Paul told the Corinthians in 1 Corinthians 15:33: “Bad company corrupts good morals.” The people we hang out with will either help us live in alignment with God or cause us to get out of spiritual balance. Christian fellowship is so important. And fellowship shouldn’t just focus on gathering socially. We need to all be like “iron sharpening iron” in our spiritual relationships with other Christian friends.

Did you know that tires will naturally get out of line over time? It’s also a known fact that everything naturally moves toward disorder. It’s the second law of thermodynamics – everything will gradually decline toward disorder. Hot things always cool. New things always age. Health always declines. We can do something to change this natural digression. You can keep your coffee pot on a hotplate and maintain things to function in “like new” condition. To stop declining health, you can exercise and eat healthy foods.

If you don’t take proactive steps to stay aligned with God, you’ll be out of alignment before you know it. It’s a guarantee. Wouldn’t it be great if we could lay down on a machine and have a report generated that showed us exactly how to adjust ourselves so we could be aligned with God? Instead of toe, camber, and caster, I wonder what words we could use to describe a spiritual adjustment. Maybe faith, hope, and love? I’m not sure. What do you think?

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