Jeremiah 37:1-38:28; 1 Timothy 6:1-21; Psalm 89:38-52; Proverbs 25:28
“This is what the Lord says: Do not fool yourselves into thinking that the Babylonians are gone for good. They aren’t! Even if you were to destroy the entire Babylonian army, leaving only a handful of wounded survivors, they would still stagger from their tents and burn this city to the ground!”
“But people who long to be rich fall into temptation and are trapped by many foolish and harmful desires that plunge them into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil. And some people, craving money, have wandered from the true faith and pierced themselves with many sorrows. But you, Timothy, are a man of God; so run from all these evil things. Pursue righteousness and a godly life, along with faith, love, perseverance, and gentleness. Fight the good fight for the true faith. Hold tightly to the eternal life to which God has called you, which you have confessed so well before many witnesses. And I charge you before God, who gives life to all, and before Christ Jesus, who gave a good testimony before Pontius Pilate, that you obey this command without wavering. Then no one can find fault with you from now until our Lord Jesus Christ comes again.”
“You have renounced your covenant with him; you have thrown his crown in the dust. You have broken down the walls protecting him and ruined every fort defending him. Everyone who comes along has robbed him, and he has become a joke to his neighbors. You have strengthened his enemies and made them all rejoice. ”
“A person without self-control is like a city with broken-down walls.”
Pestilence! That’s what “little” sins are: pestilence! We work so hard to eradicate the big deal sins in our lives. We turn over new leaves; give things up for Lent; make New Year’s resolutions; and still, we are besieged by the temptation to shave a little here, tell the white lies and compromise there. We step out of a holes and trip over roots. Just as with the Babylonians, it doesn’t seem to matter how many spiritual wars we fight. Life is much more about dealing with the one-on-one battles. That’s where it gets personal. That’s where foundations are laid… or eroded. It’s where the real fights are fought. At first, we may not sweat the small stuff. But sooner or later, we all come to know what I learned from a friend in grade school. Another classmate turned to our mutual Catholic friend and said, “Tell me about the Seven Deadly Sins.” Enlightened as the Catholic boy was, his reply showed great insight: “They’re ALL deadly.”
Indeed, they are; some sins are just more subtle than others. Take pride, for example. In 2001, I was blessed to see the culmination of what remains to this day one of my greatest personal dreams and inspirations. I oversaw and directed the production of a full-length dramatic play, Love Song – The Gospel According to Mary Magdalene, literally ten years in the writing. Since I had written it, I was particularly leery of having such a major role in the production itself. Past experience predicted that, as director, I would take personal ownership of the show – which I really did understand was a divine gift - with a “my way or the highway” attitude that would at some point derail the sense of team and camaraderie the script required. I was so worried about this becoming a problem, I actually forced the production team to find someone else to direct. Others actually did try to capture the play’s vision and failed. The Lord finally called and released me to do it. Even then, though, I would not allow my name on any promotional materials and basically just tried to operate behind the scenes, more or less anonymously except to the cast itself.
Opening night came, the show was SRO, and the standing ovation at the end told the story. Success! The cast, which knew of my ego battles and had not just cooperated but participated in an anti-pride approach, was ecstatic. The months of hard work and discipline had not just paid off but been richly rewarded! Then came the second performance. The audience did not seem to notice any problem, but I did, and the cast did. Something was different. The show was flat. We’d done everything the same, no lines were blown or changed, but the show lost its zip nonetheless. Personally, I was devastated. I knew we’d let ourselves, and the Lord, down. I will never forget the 2AM prayer time that followed.
“Lord, what happened? We tried so hard to be true to Your inspiration and keep ourselves out of it. We tried to honor only you. What did we do wrong? Why did things go off track? We busted our butts to stay humble….”
“Oh, my beloved son,” came the immediate, compassionate reply of the Holy Spirit. “I know you tried so hard. But you failed. Pride crept in. I still love you, very much, and appreciate all you’ve tried to do. But there is more work ahead. Get about it. You need to fix the problem.”
I hardly even knew where to start. I’d seen no pride to identify. The following night, though, I just shared what I’d heard with the cast. Surprisingly, it actually inspired some tears. More than one person had been wrestling with the demons of pride. The problem, however, never arose again. In fact, each night of our run, the show got stronger. By the close, we had folks from all over the state of Texas and a few from other places in the audience, had sold far more tickets than we had seats every performance, and finished each night not just with a standing “O,” but with audience members who came to talk to the cast and crew about the message of the play and the Gospel behind it. Glory to God.
So, what’s the message here? We can’t win for losing? Keep fighting the good fight? Sin is a never ending battle? The pesky “Babylonians” will win at times no matter what? Don’t get discouraged? Probably. Any of those fit. But I think the most important lesson I learned in that episode of life was that, really and truly, the Father loves us in our sin, and in spite of it. While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. We give up on ourselves long before He does. The Lord will stay in the trenches with us, no matter what, as long as we continue to at least try to seek His Way.
It’s not that we should no longer sweat the small stuff. The Lord never appreciates compromise. It’s just that He does understand it and loves us in spite of our failures. We may never know all the close calls we experience in life, or all the times we stumble. It can be hard to keep track even of what we do recognize as separating us from the Spirit. But we can, and should, take great comfort in the fact that, no matter the number of false starts or stumbles we experience, we have a Savior ready to catch and correct us in lovingkindness.
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