Take God With You On The Journey?

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We are about to embark on a journey. A journey called 2013. We each have hopes and dreams for this journey. Many of us are reflecting on the past year and making plans for the year to come.

As I hear people talk or read what some write as they reflect on the coming new year, I sometimes hear things like this.

“As you make your plans and resolutions for the new year, don’t forget to include God in those plans.”

Or something like this… 

“As you embark on the new year, don’t forget to take God with you.” 

On the surface, statements like these seem to be good reminders to include God in our lives. 

“Include God…”  “Take God with us…”   Hmmmm. 

I’m uncomfortable with statements like these.
Something seems a bit off. Why would that be? Isn’t it good to include God in our lives? Don’t we want Him to be a part of what we do? Doesn’t God Himself want to be a part of our lives?

I don’t think so. God does not want to merely be a part of our lives. He wants to be the center. He doesn’t want us to bring the plans we make to Him to be stamped with His approval. He wants us to seek Him and what He wants us to do before we begin, not after the fact. Unfortunately, that may be how many of us…not all…but many of us, approach our plans for the new year.

We don’t mean to do it, but it happens just the same. Maybe we do pretty well with seriously considering what God wants for us as we embark on the journey, but as time goes on, God’s centrality in our lives may get lost.

As I said at the beginning, we are about to embark on a journey. The journey of 2013. If we liken this journey to traveling around the world, God wants to hold the place of primary importance held by the travel itinerary and the passport. Things that we cannot do without. If we don’t have these things, we won’t be going anywhere.

Is it possible that we sometimes regard God in the same way we regard the toothbrush we pack for the journey? Important, but routine. Something included without thought.

Or perhaps we treat God more as first aid kit. Something to be pulled out and used when necessary, but just a part of the luggage until a problem arises.

God is so much more than that. Let’s be sure that on our journey into 2013, we depend on God as we depend on the travel itinerary that guides our journey. Let’s make sure that we give Him the pre-eminent place of importance of our passport. Without Him, we aren’t going anywhere.

With Him, we can go places we never even imagined.