ANOTHER KIND OF GRAVITY

Romans 7:21-23 
"I have discovered this principle of life..that when I want to do what is right, I ineveitably do what is wrong.  I love God's law with all my heart.  But there is another power in me that is at war with my mind.  This power makes me a slave to the sin that is still within me."   The Message

I can't prove the science behind it but I'm convinced that there is another kind of gravity.  It's not a physical force that can be measured but it's a force that is easily felt on a daily basis.  It's a resistance to doing the right thing and a lot of times it feels like the heavy pull of gravity.

Sometimes it comes in the form of a Saturday college football game and right as I sit down, my eight year old son asks me to come outside and throw the football with him.  That's when I feel it, it pulls against me making the right decision.  It tells me that there will be other days to throw the football which is a bit of a lie.  The truth is, there will always college football games but there will not always be an eight year old boy who wants to throw the football with his dad.

Sometimes the gravity comes in the form of exercise.  I finally get some time to go for a run and as I'm about head down the street, I notice that my 72 year old neighbor is sitting in his screened in garage alone.  He's alone a lot these days because his sweet wife passed away two years ago.  His daughter and granddaughter are really good about visiting with him regularly but even then, he's still alone alot.  I realize that I should probably stop over for a while and just spend time with him.  Once again, I feel the tug.  I hear gravity tell me that I can visit with him on another day...again, it's such an obvious lie.  My neighbor is 72 and the reality is that he biologically just doesn't have that many days left.

The more I am aware of it, the more I see a pattern emerging.  This strange force seems to show up every time there is a right decision to be made.  It's funny how those right and crucial choices never seem to come up at convenient times.  My neighbor never seems to be in his garage when I'm bored and looking for something to do.  It's the same with my son.  Anytime I think about throwing a football around, he's playing with a friend or doing something else.

I've also noticed another pattern.  Some of the most meaningful moments I've had with my neighbor and with my son were moments that came only after fighting through that gravity, getting up and going out.

We live in an upside down world so I guess I shouldn't be that surprised that this other kind of gravity will always try to pull me in the wrong direction but if I let it, that same gravity can act as a reverse compass pointing me in the right direction..