There are few things more irritating to me than leaving a half-gallon of ice cream sitting on the counter, while no one’s serving themselves. Why do I hate leaving ice cream on the counter so much? Because the longer you leave it, the less wonderful it is. 15 minutes go by and all you’ve got is vanilla snot with soggy cookie chunks in it. The disappointment of opening an ice cream that’s 2nd time frozen and freezer burned is hard to beat. In my house it’s called “the artist formerly known as ice cream” – you can eat it, if you dare, but it’s probably going to be wildly disappointing on the way in, and give you outrageous gas on the way out.

The laziness of it sitting out on the counter is scary to me – it’s not neutral, it’s scary. “I will rescue you, my precious,” is what goes through my head as I cradle it, to put it back in the freezer. Why is that important to me? Because I value the contents too much to allow them to be spoiled, or used for any purpose other than their best. Environment matters, moving quickly to the right place matters.

God looked at Moses’ generation and thought, “NO, you’re spoiling.” And they’re saying, “No, I like the counter” “But you’re spoiling there.” There is nothing loving about placating people who are sitting in a place where they can only spoil. Leaving them there is not caring, it’s brutal and heartless. The people of Israel lazily refusing to enter the promised land was scary to God, He knew it would cause them to spoil, so that they’d be useless to take God’s promise.

The laziness of putting your spiritual life in neutral is scary as well. God just wants to rescue you, but He’ll honor your choice, it’s part of His nature. God has put a fire in me to spur you to take bold steps of faith. Your time with God is just a moment away – take it. There’s someone you’ll see today that needs to know the Jesus in you – open your mouth. Let spiritual neutral be scary in your life too – it’s time to take new ground!