the issue.

I've been meaning to write this down for the last two weeks, but I just haven't had the extra chance to do so.
Lately, I've been distracted by a certain person. Which doesn't sound all that big of a deal, but to me it is, because I don't want to be distracted. I don't want to be attached to someone who doesn't even know what's going on. On top of that, I don't need everyone else I know to be aware of this in case it never works out anyway (which is more than likely what will happen). It's incredibly petty sounding, but it was really one of the first things on my mind every single day.
Until.... a couple weeks ago. I was at Aletheia and Seth stepped up to give his testimony. What he said during his testimony influences me so much so, that the issue (that's what I like to call it, the issue)... I was having is now 80% of the way gone. Here's what I learned....
Seth was talking about our sin. He was referring to the part after we're sorry for our sin, after we've repented.... the part where we want to change so badly....So basically, how we hang onto our sin and make it our top priority to get it fixed. Pretty normal, right? Well, the problem for most of us, is we can't fix it on our own. But we keep concentrating on the sin, trying to do what we can, sometimes being successful, and sometimes failing miserably, making it a lot worse than it was.
This is the kicker. Seth told us he realized by focusing on his sin (regardless of his good intentions to fix it), he was missing out on the most basic characteristics of God- some of the most basic benefits of knowing God... joy, peace, hope, strength, I could go on and on. So, he focused on who God is and what God has done, etc, instead of his problem. He continued to seek God out and learn more about Him and to love Him more fully. I'm sure you can guess the rest.... By knowing God and caring about his relationship with God first and foremost, Seth's problem kind of took care of itself. He began to love what God loves and hate what He hates. I call it living in the overflow (of God's love, of course).
So, bottomline lesson for me... I realized that this intense distraction I was having could be fixed by not focusing on it as my problem.... but instead, when I found myself distracted, I'd push it aside and fill myself with God. Search Him out for His word, search Him out in prayer, in worship... search Him out in His creation... the list is forever long, but the point is, when I'm tempted to get up to my elbows with my issues, I'm going to drop everything, and seek Him out.
And, I'm sure you can also guess the rest of my story, too.... the distraction issue has pretty much taken care of itself. (or rather, God's taken care of it, while I've been too busy seeking Him out to notice)
(Sorry if I butchered your story, Seth.)