One of my favorite books of all time was introduced to me while I was attending Valley Forge Christian College.  Gordon MacDonald’s book, Ordering Your Private World, was required reading for one of my classes and although I didn’t read it then, I am reading it now, some fifteen years later. That’s my way of confessing to Dr. McNaughton.

The very first chapter, The Sinkhole Syndrome, is both a compelling and challenging chapter. Here is an excerpt from the chapter:

The residents of a Florida apartment building awoke to a terrifying sight outside of their windows. The ground beneath the street in front of their building had literally collapsed, creating a massive depression that Floridians call a sinkhole. Tumbling into the ever-deepening pit were automobiles, pavement, sidewalks, and lawn furniture. The building itself would obviously be the next to go. Sinkholes occur, scientists say, when underground streams drain away during seasons of drought, causing the ground at the surface to lose its underlying support. Suddenly, everything simply caves in, leaving people with a frightening suspicion that nothing–not even the earth beneath their feet–is trustworthy.

The news is filled with people like Tiger Woods, Jesse James, and the Gosselin’s, all of whom are just like you and I, they, in some cases for years, did nothing to shore up the foundations of their lives and one day it all “suddenly” came crashing down. Infidelity, addictions to pain killers, the worship of a false god, and broken marriages were the debris that fell into the sinkhole.

No one is immune from the attacks of the enemy (the devil). The Bible tells us that he is looking to “steal, kill, and destroy”. He wants nothing more than for you and I to keep ignoring the steady stream of sin that runs beneath our lives. Over the years, many ministers paid the price of not taking care of their private world. They allowed greed, lust, sex, and the abuse of power to override the warning signs beneath the surface. After all, when you take a look at a building, all you see is what’s on the outside. A solid, and towering structure. We are very good at looking solid and towering, aren’t we? We hide behind our tweets, Facebook pages, blogs, and websites and present ourselves as having it all together.

I can tell you from experience that if you don’t pay attention to your private world, it will all come crashing down and that sinkhole will be filled with the very people who you love. You may feel down and out, you may feel like you are at the end of your rope, you may feel like the whole world is against you, I understand.

But, there is a God who loves you with everything that is within Him, no matter what you have done or are doing, the Bible tells us that “we cannot escape the love of the Father.” The Bible also goes on to say that “He will never leave you nor forsake you.” The bottom line is that there is a God who love you unconditionally and He wants to be your friend. How cool is that?

Let’s not kid ourselves and think that this post is just for the adulterers, sex addicts, drug addicts, etc. . .You know, the “big” sins that we like to place in order? God is just as concerned about a lack of prayer and reading of the Bible. In fact, that’s where the sinkhole begins to take place, when we begin to neglect the One who created us. Sooner or later, if a building is not maintained, it will fall. If a car isn’t taken care of, it will break down.

God has a wonderful plan for you despite what you have done. Every sin can be forgiven and ever dream can be realized! Now, go and put things in order.