Yesterday afternoon my son innocently brought his fishing
pole into the basement. We have rules
about these types of things. Fishing
poles belong in the shed or possibly on the porch. They do not come into the
house. Fishing poles are in like sticks,
big rocks, snakes, and lizards. They belong outside. My son knows this. But like all of us, he sometimes does not do
what he is told.
The bait on the pole looked like the one pictured above. It was
big with numerous hooks designed to snare some large fish lurking beneath the
surface of a local lake or river. Each
of these hooks has a barb designed to keep the fish from getting off the
hook. These barbs make extraction of a
hook only slightly easier than extracting a tooth.
Now what do you think happened when my son brought his rod
into the house? Do you think that lure just slid across the tile floor and
caused no trouble. No. The
hooks, all three of them, were promptly snagged on a blue couch cushion. (Lures
do this. They gravitate, almost like they are alive, towards the place they can
do the most harm.) I think my son tried to remove them, but hooks are designed
to embed themselves deeper the more you mess with them. By the time the cushion was laid contritely
on my desk the hooks were entangled deep in the pillow.
After about thirty minutes of labor that included a knife,
pliers, and more than one muttered word of frustration, I finally removed all
three hooks. The pillow was still usable, but it was no longer whole. The hooks
had left their mark.
As I sat extracting the lure, I thought how much this
reminds me of my own life. I know what
God tells me to do. Do not lose your temper. Do not get bitter. Do not be proud. Love your neighbor. [Insert your own sin here.] Yet I still bring sin into the house. Maybe I
assume, like my son did, that the sin will not cause much trouble. It will
innocently slide across the tile floor with little damage. But that never happens. Sin gravitates towards the place it can do
the most harm. Sin has barbs just like
that lure did. When sin enters it finds a target and embeds itself deep. This
may be my wife or my children or myself.
But sin never leaves its catch whole. It can be removed but, there is always
damage. And if I am lucky the damage
only takes a day or two to fix. All
because I did not listen.
I am grateful for Christ and his forgiveness. He takes away
my sins and gives me grace that I might be restored. But I do not want to just
keep coming back for forgiveness. I want to learn to leave sin where it
belongs. I want to listen to the Lord
with an ear to obedience. Christ has not just given me grace to be
forgiven, but he has also given me grace to overcome. When I lean on this grace
sin is not given the chance to hook me or my family. It is left where it
belongs, outside.
2 comments:
Amen. The unfortunate fishing rod incident proved to be a convicting analogy. The truth you were communicating -- the danger of letting sin embed itself into the fabric of our lives -- rang very true. Thank you for the encouragement to press on and leave sin outside where it belonts. I guess that's called sanctification.
And another Amen, Peter. I needed this reminder and will make sure I actively leave the sin outside. Ah the feeling of grace for those times we forget.
Great analogy, it has taught me much.
Love to you and your precious family,
Kathy
Post a Comment