Ever joined a gym or any membership type program? In the beginning this new relationship you noticed afforded you all the amenities you valued. The first couple of weeks or even months you use everything. You make sure to try everything at least once. However, as time goes on you continue to pay the monthly fees to have the membership, but you find yourself not using all the amenities you have access to. Sometimes you even forget all the privileges you have access to because you have slipped into a routine limiting yourself to certain activities or you have simply lost interest in what is offered and no longer value it. Unfortunately, this fallen mentality of consuming and moving on it is not limited to our earthly, temporary memberships, but it plagues our spiritual lives as well. Jesus writes a letter to a specific group of people the church of Ephesus in the book of Revelation encouraging them to return to their first love because they too, like many of us, had lost sight of what their relationship with Jesus was all about.

Lately, I have found myself feeling cornered in, pressed down, and without foresight. There are many decisions to be made but not enough clarity of thought or information to come to a resolution. There is however a lot of noise and loud voices on the news, radio, social media, and corporate emails trying to push their agendas. Then there are life's demands. These demands do not cease because I cannot make a decision. The earth continues to go round the sun causing days and weeks to fly by. Thankfully I am not the first or the last person to experience these feelings. And neither are you. 

As a child I used to dread when my mother would ask me to go get something for her from a closet or from a room in our home. Not because I did not want to go up the stairs or pause my show to go do what she asked. It was because every time without fail I would not be able to find the item she was seeking. She would described to me what I should see and where the item should be, but I would go look and without fail I would see things how she described it and still not be able to find the item. Then when I would claim defeat she would swoop in and find the item in a matter of seconds and proclaim, "see it was right there in front of your face!" 

Attitude. It was not until I was in the midst of homeschooling my first child I realized how much attitude impacts our five senses and ability to think. All of a sudden I understood why fourth grade was so hard for me. I would go in each day with a long face, dragging my feet, trying every persuasive mechanism to convince my parents to not send me to school, and when they would not comply I would spend the next couple hours murmuring. The math may have been hard, but probably not as difficult as I made it out to be. The reading may have been a lot, but not as overwhelming as I made it feel. When my child would have a poor attitude I would notice everything shutdown. He was no longer able to hear and understand the words being spoken. He was unable to see details right in front of him. His mind would get cloudy and ultimately he would give up or claim defeat or worse yet sit there murmuring under his breath. As adults our attitudes still matter and impact our ability to learn and grow in this life school.

The world often uses isolation in a negative context. When we hear the word isolation we may quickly associate it with a punishment. We isolate criminals from society to make them pay for their crimes in the desire to create a safer society. Protect people. Jails are full to capacity so society is safer, so the world thinks. We isolate those we cannot control with the intent of creating a safer society.