Living On “E”

This morning I almost had to do the walk of shame. You know the one when your car runs out of gas and you have to walk to the gas station. As you can see from the photo, I was below the “E”. I was running late last night getting home from work. There was no time to stop because we had to be at church minutes after I got home. So I passed several gas stations knowing I needed gas because the other priorities were more important. You might be thinking that getting gas in the tank is the highest priority, and you’re right.

If it is the highest priority then why do we wait so long to fill up? The same thing happens to us spiritually. We run on empty until we are almost out and then we go fill up. I know when I fill up my car, there isn’t much to worry about. I can concentrate on the parts of driving that matter. When I’m on empty, I’m completely distracted looking at that indicator and wondering just how much further below the “E” it can go before I run out. I start looking for places to fill up. I start looking at every exit hoping to see a sign. I even start to panic a little.

The same thing happens in our spiritual life. When we are full, we don’t have a care in the world. We concentrate on living our lives the way a God wants, there aren’t many distractions and we put on cruise control with no worries. Sooner or later, we need a refill though. We miss a few Sundays at church, we get too busy to read our Bible and sleep through our prayer time. Things in our life start coming apart. We start looking for God to help us. We need Him to fill us up. People around us need our help, but we are too distracted on empty to notice.

It’s tough living like that, but so many times that how we live. We spend our lives running on empty. We rarely take the time to get full. We might get a quarter of a tank here and a quarter there, but we never get full. It boils down to priorities. You might be thinking that getting has in your spiritual tank is the highest priority, and you’re right. It is, but we don’t treat it as such. We let other things in our lives take over until we run out. When we reach that point where we can’t go on, we get stuck.

My father in law has a different approach to gas. He never let’s his tank get below half. If he gets to half, he says he’s on empty. We can all adopt this approach spiritually. Recognize when you’re no longer full and make it your priority to read God’s Word. Cut out something in your day so you can pray without distractions. Push back those plans so you can attend church. If you don’t make it a priority, everything else will take it’s place and you’ll end up distracted on “E”. We’ve already agreed that filling up is the highest priority. Look at your tank today. What do you need to do to fill up?