Catch us the foxes, the little foxes that spoil the vines, for our vines have tender grapes. (Song of Solomon 2:15)
Last week we explored the importance of accountability from having people who help hold us responsible, to truly being accountable to God. We discussed how feelings can lead us astray and the importance of obedience in our life. Today we are going to pick back up on the conversation with Angie, starting with the role that consistency plays in accountability.
“With consistency and accountability, it’s easy to get started and we have good intentions when we start, but life happens, and things get busy or crazy and things change.” Oh, how I can relate to these words, thinking back to my blog last year that started with great momentum, but eventually crashed and burned. Angie reminds me that there are things we must do to stay healthy – mentally, emotionally and spiritually – as she refers to her givens, the things we must do even when we don’t feel like it. “When I think about accountability, these are my givens no matter what.”
“It’s little things… not even sin that spoils what we are trying to go after.” The little foxes that spoil the vine such as distractions that prevent us from growing and keep us complacent. As our distractors cause us to lose track of time, intentionality is out the window and then we are brought back to our “feelings” searching for the ‘feeling’ of motivation. According to Harvard Psychologist Jerome Bruner, “You are more likely to act yourself into feeling than feel yourself into action,” (Quote taken from the 15 invaluable laws of growth by John C Maxwell). Sometimes we have to fake it until we make it.
Most of Angie’s clients know how to lose weight and make healthy choices, but too often the little foxes are preventing them from reaching their goals. This brings them to Angie for a consistent voice in their ears, a reminder to be intentional and accountable, to stay the course. “There are seasons when we need people in our life,” but Angie also warns that there are seasons God wants us to lean to Him. “He is my coach,” Angie shares how the Holy Spirit consistently gives her guidance.
“So, when I come back to little foxes spoil the vine, it really comes down to obedience, it’s being obedient. I know I should be doing that, but… And then we don’t.” This brings me back to a conversation that Angia and I had years earlier about how obedience is not just following directions, but how soon we follow those directions. Are we putting it off a few hours, days, weeks, months? How often do we complain that things are not turning out, when months down the road we still haven’t followed God’s direction in our lives?
Angie tells us, “There so are many pieces to accountability, it’s not just one thing. The scripture that comes to mind is, ‘But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and His righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you. (Matthew 6:33).” Accountability is created when we seek the Lord always, making Him our priority. This may be one of the greatest examples of accountability. “If I am seeking Him first consistently, and I’m doing that first, then His promise tells me, He’ll add those things to me.” When we are accountable first to God, this trait will flow naturally into other areas of life.
This does not mean, however, that life is going to be easy as mentioned in the last post, “life is just hard.” Angie recently encountered one of her toughest years since getting set free from addiction, despite the struggle, she got up every day and kept going. “Just keep showing up, go to work today, get up, turn on your light so that you can love people and let God use you.” During this time Angie really leaned into worship, “I would leave and turn my worship music on and cry and go back to work.” Like the rest of us, Angie has days when not everything gets done, but she holds onto her givens by prioritizing her time and recognizing that every day will be different, some days will be harder.
In her concluding statements, Angie shared that we should be striving to live for God, asking the question, “God am I listening, am I talking to you always, am I paying attention to what you are putting in front of me, am I being obedient?” It is good to have people in our lives that will help keep us on track, but our goal should be to lean to God above all else and do the right thing because it pleases Him; He is our ultimate accountability partner.
Through this journey God has been revealing a lot to me about leaning on Him, showing me the distractors and little foxes in my own life, often in the form of noise or clutter. We will examine this more next week. What little foxes are standing in your way?