My grandparents lived in Rockville, IN, and very close to their house was Turkey Run State Park, a gorgeous area with some beautiful, interesting trails. One of the fun things you can do at Turkey Run is get on an inner tube and float down Sugar Creek. For those of you who have only ever gone swimming in a pool or lake, playing in a creek or river is different, because the water is always moving. Even when Sugar Creek has the appearance of a calm, peaceful lake, you can never just float in one spot, because the water constantly flows. You can either choose to swim to stay in place, or you can stop swimming and find yourself further and further downstream.
Today's verse teaches us that it's impossible to float in place as Christians. In other words, there will never come a time in your life where you've heard enough teaching, read enough Bible, and prayed enough prayers that you can retire from these efforts. The day you choose to give up on attending church and your personal devotional time is the day you start "drifting" away from what you have heard. As I go back and look at all the Bible notes I've taken over the years, and as I reread the sermons I preached, I'm often struck by just how much I've forgotten. It's not that I've become ignorant of the central issues, but certain lessons, such as yesterday's thoughts on how our material wealth is given to us that we might be generous, just drifted away, and I had to be reminded.
The thing about drifting is, it's often so gentle and subtle that you don't ever realize it's happening. In the immediate days after stopping your devotions, you feel mostly the same; but you have just a little less patience, a little less strength, and a little less wisdom. And these little changes cause life's problems to snowball, making it harder to find and make time to get back to the one thing which can help you. If you've given up your spiritual swimming routine, or if you've never had one in the first place, I encourage you to make today your first day back into a good habit.