Have you ever had those moments when you were staring into space musing over some seemingly random thing, and suddenly had an epiphany? Like you were at McD's nibbling on a french fry watching the ketchup drip from your burger, then "Hey! The fries came from a potato, the ketchup's from a tomato, and together your figure had-ta-go!"

Yeah, that didn't make much sense, but I think you get what I mean.

A month ago, I went for Fast Wait and Pray (FWP 2), a time set aside to seek the Lord for direction in our lives and our nation. Well, at the end of the time, we realized that it's time for plowing because the soil's been hardened and filled with weeds and rocks. The word that stuck with me was GROUNDWORK.

In my personal life, I realized that I've been doing so many things but don't exactly know what and why I'm doing them in the end. So I've made it my purpose to put my life back in order. What I didn't realize was that I needed to work on my heart as well.

For a while now, I forgot about the awesome revelations I had at FWP. I forgot about groundwork. But tonight somehow or other, I was examining my heart -- and didn't like what I saw. I kept looking but discovered only more sin and hypocrisy. For there is none righteous, no not one -- Romans 3:10. I wrote this line.
I dig, dig, and dig, only to find more dirt.
I was staring at that line, forgetting the seriousness of the moment to admire the turn of words. Suddenly, it hit me that that's exactly what God meant when He said groundwork. It's not only the topsoil I have to clear. I need to dig deep and get at the roots, even if it's a painful challenge. That's why I'm going through what I'm going through now.

God led me to Matthew 16:6-12.
Then Jesus said unto them, Take heed and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees. And they reasoned among themselves, saying, It is because we have taken no bread.
Which when Jesus perceived, he said unto them, O ye of little faith, why reason ye among yourselves, because ye have brought no bread? Do ye not yet understand, neither remember the five loaves of the five thousand, and how many baskets ye took up? Neither the seven loaves of the four thousand, and how many baskets ye took up?
How is it that ye do not understand that I spake it not to you concerning bread, that ye should beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees? Then understood they how that he bade them not beware of the leaven of bread, but of the doctrine of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees.
It is known that the leaven of the Pharisees is pride. I always imagine pride as show-offy, like the way my dog strutted around as he showed off his catch. But now I know that pride can come in another form. It's wanting to look good in front of everybody. In my good deeds, I did not notice that I'm starting to do them only because I don't want to let anyone down. We want to show how capable we are, how passionate we are for God. And we can do this in a quiet non-show-offy way. Then God brings us back to land when He points out the hypocrisy.

So that's what I have today. Before this, I kept asking God, "Exactly what kind of groundwork do you want us to do?" I kept thinking of great tasks like the miracle of the feeding of the thousands. Boy was I wrong. I was just like those disciples and missed out on the real leaven -- the doctrine of pride.

It's in the mundane everyday life, those moments we brush off as just something we have to go through -- it's in them that we need to be sensitive to our responses, identify the roots, dig them out, and burn them to ashes.