Falling Down

If you live in any state other than Florida, the last several days you have been dealing with inches or layers of snow and ice….and even if you were totally prepared for this ginormous snow event; snow and ice can be hazardous to your health.

I know if which I speak….for on Tuesday morning, I left the comfort of my hotel room in Myrtle Beach, to make a quick dash to my car to retrieve a business card I needed. Unfortunately, I failed to heed that old saying, “Look before you leap” or “haste makes waste” or quite possibly a hundred other sayings. Anyway, I flung open the exit door of the hotel, wrapped my jacket tightly around me to fight off the bitter wind and lowered my head as I began my sprint to my car, parked about twenty yards away. I had barely stepped off the curb, when my feet began to do a Mexican hat dance, only without the hat! I began swinging my arms in wildly, erratic circular motions in a concentrated effort to keep my feet on the ground and my posterior region off of the pavement. In what seemed like forever, I fought the laws of gravity and inertia with all my might and thought that I might be winning; then, SPLAT…THUMP…OOOUUUUCCCCHHH….I realized that gravity had won and it was more than my pride that had been wounded.

I slowly sat up, purveyed my body and all its working parts and then proceeded to reestablish myself as an upright homosapien. I took a calculated moment and began to take a closer look at the pavement that was once again under my feet and realized that I was standing on that dreaded demon, BLACK ICE! Needless to say, I cautiously made my way across the rest of the parking lot, got what I needed from my car and returned to the warmth and safety of my room…..and that got me to thinking.

Sin’s an awful lot like that black ice…it just seems to come at us out of nowhere and then, WHAM, BAM….our life has been marred or forever changed by our fall into sin.

Sure, we look around and all seems to be fine. Life is moving forward and we seem to have our act together…we know what to do and most of the time, we do it! But sin has its way of making the commonplace look dull and the worldly way seem reasonable and well within our grasp. I mean, look at Eve’s dilemma; the apple looked like all the others, only more delicious, appealing and within her grasp….so she took a bite and the fall of mankind began.

Scripture tells us, “So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin.” James 4:17 (my emphasis)

You see, God’s not sitting there with a great big checklist of sins (although the Ten Commandments are there for our clarification of what’s right over what’s wrong), waiting to hit us with a thunderbolt when we mess up and sin. He’s placed within each of us a conscience that speaks to us, loudly, clearly and constantly….encouraging us to make the right choice, thereby avoiding sin and the complications that sin brings.

The problem for all too many of us is that we have turned off the receiver, shut down the speakers and thrown out the equipment that God could use to keep us from and to steer us clear of sin….and unfortunately, this holds true for many of us that call ourselves Christians.

Yes, sin is easy to fall into….just like slipping on the ice. We may think that we are more than careful and that sin is no longer a big problem now that we belong to Christ…and it shouldn’t be; for now we have the clear, unconstrained voice of the Holy Spirit to speak to us about such matters and to encourage us to walk the walk and talk the talk….

But…
If you see injustice, turn your head and walk away…you’ve sinned.
If you see corruption and remain silent…you’ve sinned.
If you hear unfounded rumor but fail to correct….you’ve sinned.
If you should share the love of Christ, but you slip silently away…..

Then, remember this…..Our God is a gracious, loving and forgiving God and when you call on Him…. He will always pick you up when you fall down!

Listening to His Voice…Standing on Solid Ground,
WPQ