My dog and I were about halfway through our run one morning when I discovered an
abandoned dirt road through the woods. My better sense told me not to take it,
for the rain that had been falling for days would surely have turned it into a
trail of sticky, slushy mud. But since I much prefer running in nature to
running on a paved roadway, I decided to ignore the warning. “I won’t get
dirty,” I told myself. “I’ll just run between the wheel ruts!”
I hadn’t gone far, however, when it became apparent that staying out of the mud
would be impossible. Pools of water completely covered the road in some places,
and where exposed, the ridge between the ruts was slushy and slippery. But this
didn’t faze me in the least. “What’s a little mud, anyway?” I muttered, and I
proceeded to slosh my way through the sticky mire and muddy water for over half
a mile.
By the time I was back on the paved road, I had nearly twisted my ankle several
times, I had half an inch of mud caked to the bottom of my running shoes, my
jogging pants were filthy, and my poor dog was a mess. “It’s nothing to worry
about!” I told myself. “I didn’t get hurt, and the mud will fall off as I run!”
But the dirt didn’t “fall off”, and once back home, my pants had to be washed,
my shoes had to be scrubbed, and I had to give my dog a bath.
A few days later, I was once again tempted to take the muddy road. You would
think that I would have learned my lesson, but when a quiet voice whispered,
“Remember what happened last time?” I responded with, “It wasn’t anything that a
little soap and water couldn’t wash out!”
Over the next few weeks, I took that muddy road numerous times. Each time, I
became more confident in my ability to keep from getting dirty and to keep from
injuring myself, and each time it became easier and easier for me to ignore the
little voice of warning.
Then one day, my dog came home infested with ticks. After a visit to the vet to
remove the ticks, a lime disease vaccine, and a tick bath, all of which cost
over 100$, she was still banned outdoors for 3 days until the tick medicine
could take effect.
Later, in contemplating this situation, I began to remember how many times my
foot had slipped in the mud, how many times I had nearly fallen, and how close I
had come to twisting my ankle or breaking an arm. What a chance I had been
taking!
How many times in life are we tempted to run down the road of sin? “I’ll avoid
the sin,” you tell yourself, but you learn, too late, that once on the path, it
can’t be completely avoided. In fact, you are miraculously saved from falling
into it over and over again, and when you finally come to your senses, you learn
that the traces of sin won’t just “fall” off on their own. They have to be
washed off with the cleansing “bath” of the blood of Jesus, poured out freely
for each and ever repentant sinner.
But each time you go down the sinful paths of the world, it becomes easier and
easier to give in to the temptation the next time. You hear yourself say: “It
doesn’t matter. Falling into sin won’t hurt me! Jesus will forgive me and
cleanse me when I am finished!” And you are right. Jesus will forgive you, for
you are under grace. But each time you travel down the paths of sin, it begins
to lose its “sinful” appearance. You continue to put yourself in danger of
“slipping” and causing serious damage and permanent scarring to your character.
Worst of all, the crippling consequences of your self-indulgence may get someone
else into trouble—someone who isn’t as strong as you are, or who doesn’t know
Jesus like you do. “Be careful, however, that the exercise of your freedom does
not become a stumbling block to the weak . . . So this weak brother, for whom
Christ died, is destroyed by your knowledge. When you sin against your brothers
in this way and wound their weak conscience, you sin against Christ.” (1
Cor.:9-13). Is it any wonder that Heb. 12:1 tells us to “Throw off everything
that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles”?
Let’s resist the temptation to go down the muddy road—to flirt with sin. Keeping
God’s commands will prevent us from muddying our shoes. It will ensure that sin
never becomes “commonplace”. It will make it possible to “run with patience the
race that is set before us” (Heb. 12:1), and most importantly, it will ensure
that we will never become a “stumbling block” for another.
Lyn Chaffart
The Illustrator: This daily newsletter is dedicated to encouraging
everyone to look towards Jesus as the source of all the solutions to our
problems. It contains a daily inspirational story, a Bible verse and encouraging
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The Nugget: Published three times a week, this newsletter features inspirational devotionals and mini-sermons dedicated to drawing mankind closer to each other and to Christ.