Back to the drawing board

And Laban said to Jacob, because you are my brother, should you not therefore serve me for nothing? Tell me, what shall your wages be? And Jacob loved Rachael; and said, I will serve you seven years for Rachael your younger daughter. - Genesis 29:15,18

Memories are like stones, time and distance erode them like acid. - Ugo Betti, Italian dramatist and poet.

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         Hollywood must be green with envy at the mastery of the script. Flawless. Creative. Dramatic and of course, romantic. A classic love-at-first-sight story. A fugitive on the run finds love. It overflows his heart crowding out his worries and calming his fears; energizing him with passion to face life. No its not a fable, its the true story of Jacob's life. He meets Rachael, his uncle's daughter and the rest, like they say , is history.

         Problem is, Jacob not only forgets the fury of his brother Esau's wrath, he also totally forgets his divine encounter in which the Lord God of heaven promises to give the land he is lying on to him ad his descendants.

         How do I know he forgot? Right after his encounter with God, in the very next chapter, he is given an opportunity to determine his wages. Isn't it shockingly amazing that, of all the things he could quote and quantify, he decides he wants to work for something God has promised to GIVE him? I am sure by the time God had said 'descendants' he had calculated for the wife factor. In any case, he laboured to earn a wife. Why? She was a built in, integral part of God's promise to him.

      Things don't work out as he plans and he finds himself in the thick of the conspiracy of all time. As a trickster he has found his match in Laban. he worked for Rachael but landed Leah. Its difficult to adequately capture the myriad of emotions he experienced, from anger to bitterness to crushing disappoint to shocked offense.

     Jacob was promised land by God, to be a ruler and owner and God promised to bless his generations. He got distracted by Rachael and her her stunning beauty. This made him a slave instead of a ruler. because he served his uncle fourteen years for her.

      If Jacob had only on his God given vision, he would still have gotten a wife from God and dominion over the land he had been promised.

     There are areas in our lives that we try to do things in our way yet God has commanded us to do other things His way. We derail from God's purpose for our lives and lose the mark the moment we stop following God's instructions and start doing our own things.

      This ends up frustrating us an at that point we stop fulfilling God's perfect purpose for our lives.

     Are there areas in your life that you left God long ago and you cannot trace your purpose? You have to go back to the drawing board and seek God to lead you again.

    Before making a decision, review where you've been with God first. That way you are sure that you are walking with Him and not forgetting any part of the deal. After all, Cesare Pavese (Italian novelist and poet), reminds us "The richness of life lies in the memories we have forgotten."