Life On The Level
A few years ago, Linda and I took our camper up north. It’s important to level the camper when parked at a campsite, or you’ll end up with all kinds of problems. I normally use a small but reliable level that I place on the floor. I had recently picked up a new one that was longer, larger and easier to read. But after leveling the camper, Linda and I went inside and we felt like we were walking uphill. I put the new level on the floor and the bubble was in the middle. I put my old level on the floor and it was so far off that the bubble wasn’t even visible.
My new level wasn’t accurate. Not even close. I threw it in the trash.
There are some instruments that have to be in perfect working order. A level is one of those. It’s a simple guide, but if it doesn’t work right, it messes everything up. Airplanes have crashed and lives have been lost because of faulty instruments. Pilots who thought they were doing fine ended up colliding into rising terrain. Those instruments that tell you whether you are level and heading in the right direction are the most important.
That’s also why so many lives crash and burn. They can appear to be operating perfectly on the outside, but because they have faulty indicators, their lives are off kilter. Even though they think they’re living according to plan, at some point it all falls apart and they wonder what happened.
They have a faulty level.
Faulty levels include: popular culture, life on sitcoms and in movies, what friends think, even some things they are taught in school, and maybe the way their parents and grandparents lived…or worse yet, how they feel. These can be faulty instruments that may lead to a crashed life.
So many life philosophies are based on a faulty system because God is left out. If we don’t start with Him—why He created everything, especially us—and live according to the level and compass He provides in His Word, we end up with faulty indicators. We may think we are heading in the right direction, only to crash into the side of a mountain we didn’t know we were heading toward.
God knows more about you than you know about yourself. He knows more about life and how it works than you, me, Hollywood, your college professor, and even your parents and extended family. If you want your life to work, you have to start with that realization. Then you have to use HIS level to determine right from wrong, character, and integrity, and use HIS compass to give you direction.
So what level are you using?