What is your quintessential fallback thought – the basic experience of your awareness?

Life passes. I grow thin. I grow fat. I have periods of stasis and of excitement; of thoughtless security and of tough, prayerful peace. At times my thoughts increasingly skip back to the past and at others I drive a straight line to my goals for the future. I get sick or I remain well. This morning I long to rest enraptured in God’s grace and this afternoon my single reverent thought is forced and dry. One day life seems a burgeoning horizon. The next a slough.

Outside my window a lady is taking pictures of my house. I stop what I’m doing to go out and meet her. When I return, what thought fills my mind in this moment of transition? Regardless of its content, it is an indication of what I cling to inside.
What fleeting sensation permeates your silent instant? That general sick feeling of inadequacy. A hurried list of to-dos. The name of a guy you liked in High School. A dream you are not sure God will ever fulfill. A glance in the mirror or a bit of worry over the Presidential Primary. Are these our gods? We paint ourselves too righteous to think we are above such invasive addictions. We are like typewriters. Return. Tap - tap. Return. Tap - tap. Return.

What do we return to? What keeps coming back to mind throughout the day?

“All who make idols are nothing. And the things they treasure are worthless.”
Isaiah 44:9

“There is no one righteous, not even one; there is no one who understands, no one who seeks God. All have turned away …. But now a righteousness from God, apart from law, has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify. This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe.”
Romans 3:10-22