We have a friend who declares--in front of his wife--"The last time I had a hot supper was when a candle fell over on my sandwich!" And Anabel's delectable hot suppers seem to be a thing of the past. I get out the old recipe, follow directions carefully, and wind up thinking, "What did I do wrong?" Cooking was--at one time--one of my strong suites. But that was when I had three hungry boys at the table and a husband who delighted in coming home to a fabulous supper after working all day long (and was very complimentary by the way). The boys have long since chosen other "cooks." My husband can have a fabulous mid-day meal as well as a fabulous evening meal, but those fabulous meals can be bought, paid for, and eaten with no dishes to do and no hot stove in a mere matter of minutes.
What happened to my delectable dishes? Simple. I stopped "doing" and when you stop doing you forget. I wasn't responsible. No one bragged on me. I just wasn't motivated'and I forgot how to do it.
Lynn forgot something much more vital. She grew up in a small town and loved it. She's grown now, a widow, still very lovely in her "older" years. She had a "reserved" seat on the fourth row of the Church every Sunday morning and every Sunday night. She attended a small Bible Study every Tuesday noon with a teacher who knew the Scriptures and respected their inerrancy. She loved being a part of that select group. She read her devotional every morning praying for others as she did. Her world was running smoothly. She was contented and at peace.
Then she "was forced" to move away from that cloistered environment to a Retirement Villa. She was very unhappy with her "new" home and had no interest in or use for the people who lived there with her. She quit going to Church (she couldn't find one like "the church at home"), refused invitations to join a Bible study group, stopped reading her devotionals, and turned to a life of constantly blaming others for her circumstances, isolated herself from others and has moved as far away from the Lord as she can.
She says, vehemently, "God deserted me!" No. That is not true, She deserted Him! She has "forgotten the Lord, her Maker, Who stretched out the heavens and laid the foundations of the earth . . ." [1] She has "forgotten the God of her salvation and has not remembered the rock of her refuge . . . " [2] She has become as a "lost sheep . .. and has forgotten her resting place." [3]
Once we stop "practicing the presence of God"--once we stop talking to Him, and put His Word on the bottom shelf with the dust bunnies--the process of forgetting has begun. It just happens. We all recognize that, but sometimes fail to apply that factual research to our relationship with our Maker, the Lord of hosts, our loving Shepherd.
And how does our Lord react to this lack of attention? He pleads with us, "Come back, please. Come here to Me, you who are weary and weak. I will give you rest.[4] I long to shelter you with my love.[5] I will cause you to rise up with wings like the eagle." [6] More than anything else, He longs for us to be reconciled'to be with Him. [7] To remember Him. To return His love.
I'm not really too worried about my cooking expertise, although I miss having that stellar reputation! I have learned from the experience however--that absence doesn't really make the heart grow fonder and that practice really does make perfect.
