There is so much to learn and soak in and remember and apply and put into practice.
I am so easily distracted and I so easily forget. Pulled this way and that. Swayed by my circumstances. Trapped by my thoughts. Affected by my feelings - sometimes even paralyzed by them.
Why do we so often prefer to stay in Egypt - in our slavery - bound to what doesn't help us?
Being set free isn't easy, I guess, and we usually look for the easy route in life. Being free requires taking risks. It requires having faith. It requires complete rejection of our old masters, our old customs; our old ways of thinking and doing things. It requires complete subjection and obedience to our new Master and learning His new ways. We have to be willing to rough it and go without in order to one day have our own; to have what HE wants us to have.
We complain; we pine away about what we miss; we dwell on the would haves, could haves, and should haves. Our view of the desired goal gets blurred and we so easily forget what we were fighting for in the first place.
We drift and tarry... we return to our slavery to feel the comforts of home again. One step forward and two steps back. We go around in circles and waste so much time.
We scoff at the Israelites for wandering for 40 years in a small radius of desert. But we do the same...wandering for 40+ years in our spiritual deserts. Clinging to the comforts of our flesh, what we know, what comes naturally to us; never arriving to our Promised Land of Freedom and Peace and Victory and Joy.
