Does it stick or not?

On my home projects, I’ve tried several ways to bring together items that should be hitched. I’ve learned to use dental floss on buttons. Gorilla glue has worked successfully even items that go in the dishwasher. Those thin nylon zipper-type fasteners are a great invention. Used creatively they can even keep my daughter’s bent light fixture attached to her car. Choosing the appropriate product is essential when we bind objects together. ‘Post-It Notes’ made with Gorilla glue would be useless.

Screws, tape, nails, gum, paste, hot glue, arc welders and numerous other products can help items adhere. Perhaps there should be a scale of measurement on this subject. The first ‘Level Of Stickiness’ (LOS) could be a 1.0 LOS for that Post-It Note variety of stickiness. A well done metal arc weld could be a 10.0 LOS.

Let us relate this back to our relationship with God. What is our LOS in terms of our attachment to God? Is it 3.7 or possibly 8.8? If an all out ‘loving the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, strength and mind’ is a 10.0 in the LOS standard we have just invented, how would we rank ourselves? This is not scientific to be sure, but a mental and subjective quotient might be more helpful than the ‘good’ or ‘bad’ response to our relationship with God.

We are created in God’s image and are created to ‘stick’ to Him. In the circumstances of life the level of our adhesion to Him gets tested. When God allows stress into our lives, does our quotient go up or down? We have Biblical examples like Elijah and Jeremiah who spent time in serious depression. Not all depression is bad or self-inflicted, and it can give energy and insight, serving a purpose God Himnself intends. In James 3:2 there is the reference to the fact that “we all fail”, so I think we need to accept in ourselves that staying at a 10.0 LOS is not likely to happen.

Hopefully we develop skills to help us notice when our LOS quotient is going in a downward direction. Can we honestly assess our heart in these moments and see what is affecting us? I marvel that Job in his trial could say, “The Lord gives and the Lord takes … blessed be the name of the Lord.” Even though Job may not have been at a 10.0 LOS moment, at least he was being upheld by his pre-developed and continuing relationship with God.

May God help us to be honest with ourselves and grow in our adhesion level with Him!