Dudes II

Therefore let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall. (1 Corinthians 10:12)

That verse pounded in my ears today. Like a migraine. Like a mosquito in the middle of the night. When it seemed I would finally get myself lost in my work, the timpani of truth began to snare in my mind once again.

I know a man who had fallen. Oh, not in the sticky darkness of sin, but he had fallen physically. That metaphor for spiritual failure took on a clarity I had not seen before, and in light of John Edwards and King David, the message of the Lord blistered my heart.

I had always thought of blatant arrogance when considering this verse. This dealt with the prima donnas. In my mind, I had drawn a stark line between the cocky and the confident. Misplaced confidence bit me like a well-hid rattler.

The man who walks with God will not plan to off-ramp into sin. In fact, he will chart the course. He will ensure that his vehicle is ready for the journey. He will have identified the potential problems along the way and either plotted the route to steer clear or taken precautions against proximity to pitfalls. He makes his plans and understands that the Lord will guide the steps.

What begins to creep in over time is a confidence in those plans, a confidence in those abilities. Perhaps he still holds a great awareness for the problem areas, but he has gone around them before, his precautions have kept him secure.

Then a circumstance dictates a pathway precipitously close to the precipice, a situation necessitates a setting aside the precaution...

...Let he who thinks he stands...beware!

The unseen. The unforeseen. After the fall, the sobriety of the situation melts away the confidence like the sun burns off the dewy fog.

No temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to man; but God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also make the way of escape, that you may be able to bear it. (1 Corinthians 10:13)

So do you venture out on the dark, rain-slicked morning or do you step back and consider that perhaps the journey is not required that morning. Or perhaps you have not considered that God has provided you a way out, an easy route that completely neuters the threat.

I know a man that praises God that he can learn lessons from his fall for it could have easily cost him his life (1 Peter 5:8). May the God of all wisdom translate a physical mishap into an eternal lesson.