God’s commands aren’t as vague and gray as we like to think they are in the moments of contemplating compromise.

Some of my best thinking happens when I’m running. And for this, I wish they made treadmills with dictation so I could work out my mind as I work out the flesh.

On this particular day at the gym, I stepped onto the treadmill with an achy body from the 3/4 quart of ice cream I binged on the night before. I regret the lack of self-control now, but the Academy Awards were on, so it seemed like the perfect idea then! During my run, I started to think about how this cookie company started “erroneously” charging my credit card $5.60 nearly every day for spoonfuls of sugar crafted into confection creations. Because I love all things sweet, this doesn’t sound that erroneous, but I know the sugar shop isn’t a stop I make every single day… especially when I’m working so hard to burn it off.

Side note here: the other day I watched a man carry in a bowling bag with a tabletop fan, that he plugged into the treadmill outlet and bung-ied to the front of the machine interface… in. the. gym! For an hour he ran like this, and it has me thinking possibilities of a laptop tied to the front of my machine chronicling all my contemplations could actually become a reality. (ha!)

Back to my thoughts today, in mid-run I began to daydream about the smoothie bar here at the gym. Every day I stop by the register for a recovery protein shake. Now THAT sounds like something I would stop and pay $5.60 every single day for. And then it hit me… that was something I spent $5.60 for… every.single.day.

What is the likelihood that the cookie company I reported as identity theft may actually own the smoothie bar at my gym? Eek! I made a mistake! A terribly, painstakingly, awful mistake. I have spent weeks on conference calls with legal departments and opened investigations, combing through evidence, just to have my credit card company conclude someone swiped my card, and it wasn’t me. They credited my account nearly $100 closed the case. I had won. I got my money back. But I really hadn’t won, because now I discovered that I was actually at fault for spending the money!

Winning in this life isn’t everything. In fact, compared to the freedom in following God’s commands, winning in this life is nothing.

Liberty is discovered through the will of God, not our own desires. Sometimes we need to forfeit the perceived wins here to gain greater earnings in heaven later.

It is a cookie cutter choice to make. You’re either in the will of God or you’re not. You either trust Him or you don’t.

Trust me, the devil asked if I really wanted to go through the hassle of reopening a closed case. And he gave me four more chances to walk away with the money and my time in hand, as the bank, credit card company, dispute department, and fraud division all attempted to talk me out of the work to undo their decision.

There is nothing worth more than our love and desire to obey God.

Oh Lord, your reminders of how good you are break my heart. You are so good to us. Help me to remember your goodness always and give me the strength to never trade it in for something less than the freedom You alone provide.