FUEL

With the current spiraling cost of gas, I imagine the price of fuel is something that haunts a lot of thoughts people have during a week. Every time one goes to the pump, that price tag is a reminder of how much more it is costing today to fill up one's gas tank that even last year.

While it is not my desire with this blog to focus in on the debate over gas prices and energy alternatives, I simply wish to point out how important we all know that fuel is to our existence. Whether the future holds any viable hope for improvement is another of those subjects that no one seems to agree. What we do know from experience is that as a rule tomorrow things will cost more than today.

Which makes everyone aware that the simple price of life will never be cheap or one we will savor as pure pleasure. So we fill up our gas tanks and bodies, pray for some kind of mercy in provision and are never totally free from the concerns over the fragile nature of existence. Dependency to live on some form of fuel will always affect us.

And though we do so often deal with the energy needs of this life, I'm not sure the same applies to the spiritual side of being. Oh there are plenty of people who do "fill up' on spiritual energy by attending church. It is a natural connection in the minds of many for the type of energy, which truly makes the soul function.

Yet, it that always the only place you can energize the spirit? Does it really require some formula of effort such as relying on daily devotions or inspiration from a given source to truly revitalize and fuel the soul?

From my point of view the answer is both yes and know. Inspiration is important and beneficial. But we are all different and what speaks to one person isn't the same as what works for another.

Part of the answer to me is found in respecting God's capacity for touching our lives in a way that truly brings the fuel needed for our soul. Some will never truly be free enough in their thinking to open their minds to such options. They will be content to only visit their local meeting house for worship and bible study and decide it is enough.

Yet, I've seen the times when that type of approach genuinely doesn't satisfy. It grows stale from familiarity and the simple reality that to often it just doesn't reach into the recesses where we actually live.

When this happen and we simple don't feel refreshed from the experience that natural reaction is try regard the problem as being with the nature of the worship service. One wants to have it changed to add variety and augment the withering sense of satisfaction.

There are times when in reality, I think God uses those times to prepare to listen to him. It is a tap on the soul's shoulder to in essence say, "Wake up and listen to me for a change." The big question is whether we are prepare to accept fuel is available other than sitting in a pew?