There are things that are universal to the human condition. They essentially define what it is to be human. These traits are important……..so important that it is critical that we recognize them………so important that it is essential that we try to understand them. Some of these traits are physical. We breathe in oxygen and breathe out carbon dioxide. If we ignore this essential reality……if we fail to take it into account every moment of our life……..we die. These physical traits are fairly easy to see, measure, and understand…….like oxygen and carbon dioxide. So far, so good. But, there is a duality. Some of these traits are spiritual. These essential spiritual traits are harder to discern. And yet, they are every bit as real as the physical traits. Ignore them…….reject them……and you will wind up just as dead…….perhaps, even more so.

If you want to live a full, satisfying, joyful life, it is mandatory that you understand these spiritual traits and successfully navigate your way through them.

So…….what are these essential spiritual traits?

Love
Anger
Desire
Despair
Righteousness
Sin
Fulfillment
Pain
Sovereignty
Submission

I’m sure that there are more. Search your heart. You will find that every one of these spiritual traits lives in you. In fact, they influence you every day. You could go so far as to say that one or more of them drives every choice that you make.

Because these spiritual traits are absolutely universal, I believe that they are evidence of our connection to a spiritual reality. There have been hundreds of attempts by man to flesh out the specifics of this spiritual reality. I am a Christian. I believe that the correct explanation lies in the Bible and the Trinity.

So……how do we navigate our path through life…….spiritually?

Adam and Eve were created by God. They were physically complete, but spiritually, they were an empty slate. They were completely naive, spiritually. They were completely innocent. Then, they were given a basic set of instructions….rules.

Love and walk with God.
Remain naive.
Do this and live forever.

Adam and Eve began life naive, innocent. Then God introduced a very basic set of rules……the beginning of the law. Hiding in the law was freedom. By God’s design, we were given the freedom to choose. We could obey the rules…….of defy them. We could choose which spiritual trait or traits we would pursue. We were given the choice to accept God’s absolute sovereignty……..or to try to seize sovereignty for ourselves. And it’s been downhill ever since. God had to see this coming. How could God be so obtuse?

Well, it turns out that God is working out a plan…..his plan. God’s plan is rooted in the overriding spiritual trait of God……love. He loves us. And not just that. He desires our love in return. But, love requires the freedom to choose. Love cannot be compelled. Love that is compelled is not love……it is obligation. So, right from the start, God gave us a choice:

Love God, submit to his absolute sovereignty, and live.

Or

Seize sovereignty for ourselves and die.

Imagine a plant. It can accept its roots and thrive in its appointed place…….or it can cut itself free, take off on its own, and wither.

You may not like this. You may disagree.

But, your rejection of God’s sovereignty is irrelevant.

Because it is a spiritual truth…….just like oxygen is a physical truth. Search your heart…….and you will find this spiritual truth.

Choose it…….and live.

Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.

Jesus, John 15:4-5, ESV

so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.

Ephesians 3:17-19, ESV

We decide.

Every day, over and over again, we choose.

There are basically 2 ways to live your life……..two paths.

In almost every choice that we make, the path that we choose colors our decision.

Kindness and anger.

We go through each day…….and things happen to us, around us, and to the people around us. Some of these things are good, others are terrible. Such is life. Much of what happens to us is completely beyond our control. But, how we respond to these events is completely in our control.

We are not responsible for the things that happen to us. We are completely responsible for how we react to the things that happen to us.

As I taught my sons: when trouble rears its head and you are seeking a solution, focus on the parts of the problem that you can control. Often this is a tiny, but powerful part of the problem. Control your response……because you cannot control the event.

Kindness and anger. Each of these has things that go with it.

Kindness:
Generosity
Love
Concern
Forgiveness
Forbearance

Anger:
Vengeance
Blame
Hate
Bias

And many more

There is no question that we are shaped by our life experiences. Cindy and I have had more than our share of tragedies. But, overall, I would say that we have been blessed. When things are going well, it is easy to be kind. It costs us very little. At the other extreme, I know a man who has had a much harder life. It seems as though bad things just keep happening to him. It is very easy to choose anger, when the system is out to get you.

Still, the choice is yours.

Job was blessed in his early years and he was a righteous man. Easy. Then, the blessings were ripped away. Tragedy stalked him. This stage of his life was much harder. His wife had an answer for his predicament: “curse God and die!” Job’s response was much harder to do………Job remained righteous. This is the lesson of the book of Job. The book of Job has nothing to do with why tragedy strikes. The book of Job is all about how we respond.

“Gimpel, the Fool” by Singer is the story of a man who was abused by life and everybody around him. And yet he chose kindness. I read this short story in college. It changed the trajectory of my life. Only the Bible has influenced me more. You really need to track it down and read it.

We live in a culture that teaches us to respond to bad things with anger. That’s what our heros do. That’s what the talking heads on our devices tell us to do. That’s what Clint Eastwood would do.

But that’s not what our creator tells us to do.

What our creator asks of us…….what our creator expects from us……..is kindness…..even in the face of tragedy………even in the face of abuse.

“I am Gimpel the fool. I don’t think myself a fool. On the contrary. But that’s what folks call me.”

Gimpel, in “Gimpel the Fool”

“Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return. The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.” In all this Job did not sin or charge God with wrong.

Job responding to tragedy, Job 1:21-22, ESV

Most people don’t know it……but, it turns out that Marilyn Monroe was an extremely intelligent woman. A few days before she died, she spoke with Billy Graham. This conversation arose out of a “word” given to Billy Graham, telling him to approach her with the offer of salvation. At the end of the conversation, she told him, “I don’t need your Jesus”. I suspect that this statement put Billy Graham in his place and effectively ended the conversation.

It’s an interesting comment on several levels.

In the first place, she recognizes the existence of God…..specifically, the God described in the Bible…….Billy Graham’s God. She didn’t deny God’s existence. She didn’t deny his power or his authority…….his sovereignty. What she did was to deny her need. Considering what happened over the next few days, she clearly was desperately in need. On the face of it, she was catastrophically naive about her need.

Given her imminent death, she was wrong. She actually needed God more acutely than she had ever needed him before. I think that a more accurate…….more truthful comment would have been, “I don’t want your Jesus.” That is to say, “I’ve got this under control, I don’t want any outside interference.”

And that is precisely where most secular humanists are today. The secular humanist puts himself in charge……of everything. He is smart and powerful……without question, the smartest, most powerful entity in the universe. He understands just about everything. He manipulates his surroundings to his advantage. In order to pull this off, he puts himself at the apex of the power and control pyramid. The pure SH denies the existence of God……..the existence of any higher power……..the existence of any Supreme Being to whom he must submit. This is wrong……however, it is, at least, intellectually honest.

But, there is a second tier of SH. This is where most Secular Humanists operate. This is where a great many Christians operate. These are the people who admit the existence of God. They just refuse to follow his instructions. They keep him boxed up in a corner of their life. They drag him out every now and then, give him a “to-do” list that promotes their agenda and then stuff him back into the box where he will not interfere with their efforts to control the universe. They believe that this will be enough to buy them a spot in paradise…….and they might be right. But, this plan is fundamentally dishonest. It reduces God, the creator of the universe, to a cosmic “gopher-guy”………a useful tool…….the guy who cleans up the mess after the party is over. They ascribe to God only the characteristics that fit in with their world view……with their plan. They ignore any facet of God that interferes with their master plan. In effect, this “mocks” God and his plan.

This might be the Christian who supports missions around the world, but who wants every last illegal alien rounded up and sent home. Why? Because the “illegals” are using up the resources that would otherwise go to supporting our American lifestyle……a lifestyle that is lavish by comparison to the rest of the world. It is a lifestyle where we spend more than we earn and put the deficit on our credit card. It is a lifestyle that is not sustainable. It is a lifestyle that will implode……soon.

The solution is to solve the problem of sovereignty. The solution is to run the world according to God’s plan instead of our own. That means every letter of God’s plan. That means honoring God’s plan…….instead of our plan. This means putting God’s plan ahead of our plan.And what is God’s plan?

Love God……love everybody else.

And here is the hard part. That will mean doing things that often do not serve our plan. This will mean sacrificing our plan into order to serve God’s plan. This will mean compromising our plan and, likely, our lifestyle.

Do not be deceived: God is not mocked, for whatever one sows, that will he also reap. For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life.

Galatians 6:7-8, ESV

You shall treat the stranger who sojourns with you as the native among you, and you shall love him as yourself, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt: I am the Lord your God.

Leviticus 19:34, ESV

As a part of my morning meditation, I do something that I never have done well. I sit quietly. I try to empty my mind. I pray: “Here I am Lord……..use me.” Sometimes, an idea comes to me……pretty much out of nowhere. Sometimes, this idea becomes the seed for one of these blog posts. That is the case today.

Use me.

Seems pretty straightforward. I am asking my king for my marching orders for today. This can be a little scary. Just like you, I have an agenda, a plan for the upcoming day. And not just that…….I have a plan for the week, for the month, for the rest of my life. My plan is a pretty good one. For the most part, it serves God’s community. For the most part, it serves my family. But a whole lot of my plan serves me. God has a plan too. He has a plan for me. And that is where the trouble comes in. Because, God’s plan is often different from my plan. No. God’s plan is usually different from mine.

So, how do I deal with the conflict between God’s plan for my day and my plan for my day?

There is a range of ways to get around this:

Eliminate God. If you deny God’s existence, you can eliminate as invalid anything that God asks of you that is outside of your plan.

Marginalize God. You pay lip service to God. If anyone asks, you say that you believe in God. You go to church on Sunday, you pray…..maybe daily, you might even tithe. But when you get up on Monday morning, you start working out your plan. You put God in a box for the next six days. You file God away where his plan cannot interfere with your plan. Maybe you read the Bible. But, you pick through the instructions……you use the parts that support your plan and discard anything that conflicts with your plan. Jimmy Carter was a good Christian man; but, his book “Christianity” is an instruction manual on this technique.

Enlist God. This is, perhaps, the tool that is most used by serious Christians. This is the tool that I often find myself reverting to. I put together a “to-do” list for God. Sure, the list includes a number of “kingdom goals.” But, there is always a line item or two, perhaps many items, straight out of my plan for the day.

I can divide the list of line items on my “to-do” list for God into two categories.

God……use me. Use me to work out your plan.
Example: “come Holy Spirit.”

God…..I need to use you. I’ll use you to work out my plan.
Example: “please let the Bengals win”

As an exercise, write down your “to-do” list from your last prayer. Now divide it between those two categories.

This will give you an idea of just how close your plan is to God’s plan. I find that this exercise is pretty convicting. But, don’t feel bad. Jesus, fully man and fully God, struggled with this same conflict.

“Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me. Nevertheless, not my will, but yours, be done.”

Jesus struggling with two plans….his plan and his father’s plan.

Luke 22:42, ESV

We are clearly told to pray for God’s help in working out our plan. But, we must be mindful of whose plan we are working on when we pray. That way, when we pray, our prayer becomes a tool for bringing our plan into alignment with God’s plan…….which, after all, is the real plan.

“Father……….not my will, but yours, be done”

Amen

“Sir, my concern is not whether God is on our side; my greatest concern is to be on God’s side, for God is always right.”

Abraham Lincoln considering which side God was on during the Civil War…….considering which plan to follow, his plan or God’s plan.

We live in a fluid world. We change. Our environment changes. We have free will…….we make decisions. God has a long-range plan………God makes decisions. It all goes into the mix……..the mix that becomes our life. The mix that creates our destiny………even our eternity. We control much of what goes on. Most of what goes on is beyond our control. God oversees it all.

But, here is where it gets complicated. God can control it all. Sometimes, he intervenes directly. Sometimes, he intervenes indirectly. Sometimes, he stands aside and lets the world evolve based on the decisions that we make…….based on the decisions that others make.

My brother was a bicycle rider. He rode thousands of miles a year. One day, a lady in a car, in a moment of carelessness, made a decision. She ran him down. He survived; but, he will carry the injuries……the results of her decision…….. for the rest of his life.

My son was a motorcycle rider. One day, a lady in a car, in a moment of carelessness, made a decision. She ran him down. He survived; but, he will carry the injuries…….the results of her decision……for the rest of his life.

On the other hand, I have led a life where everything just fell into place: a wonderful wife, children and grandchildren, a nice home, plenty of food, a comfortable retirement.

So…….where is God in all of this? Who gets the credit? Who gets the blame?

Life is a giant equilibrium. We intervene, others intervene, God intervenes. Out of that mix, our day unfolds. Good things happen. S..t happens. The equilibrium is so complicated that it is not possible to sort out the details. It is not possible to suss out one event and to assign credit……or blame. But, that, of course, does not stop us. Sure, we say our prayers of thanks and petition. But, in the end, we tend to pat ourselves on the back. We look at the good things and tell ourselves that they grow out of our hard work, our brilliant decisions.

And here is where we get into trouble. We look at the bad things that come into our life……every day……and we assign blame. Somebody got impatient. Somebody got angry. Somebody committed a crime. And then we turn to God. We recognize his power, in fact , his omnipotence. And we say, “God…how could you allow this!” Sometimes, we directly blame God. More often, we blame him for not intervening…….for not heading off the disaster…….a disaster caused by decisions made by others……or worse, a disaster caused by our own decisions. We have a couple of beers, get into our car, and run over a pedestrian. And we say, “Why didn’t God intervene?”

Something bad happens…….and we get angry at God.

The truth is that we don’t have the information necessary to parse out the blame. We will probably never understand how to assign the responsibility……for both the good and the bad in our lives. The equilibrium is just too complex…….and we have only a tiny sliver of information to work with. We are completely ignorant to most of the factors that led to any particular event.

What to do?

Acknowledge God and his love for you.
Trust his promise that he will make it right in the end……on his terms…..not on yours.

What to avoid?

Don’t take credit for the good things.
Don’t blame God for causing……or allowing…….. the disasters.

Accept the fact that you…..and I…..are ignorant.
Accept the fact that you…..and I…..are not in charge.
Act within those limitations.
Use your free will for the good of mankind.

Let God be God.

Do not be deceived: God is not mocked, for whatever one sows, that will he also reap.

Galations 6:7, ESV

When a man’s folly brings his way to ruin,
his heart rages against the Lord.

Proverbs 19:3,ESV

“Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return. The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.”

In all this Job did not sin or charge God with wrong.

Job 1:21-22, ESV

God promises that there is a good place waiting for those who honor him…..for those who love him.

I can understand those who reject the promise because they don’t accept the existence of God. That is, at least, rational.

What I struggle with is those who recognize God but still ignore the promise. Typically, these are Christians who have replaced God’s promise with a transaction.

The transaction goes something like this:

I will try to do good things and try to avoid doing bad things. In payment for this, God will provide me with paradise. The subtext is that if I do enough good and avoid enough bad, I earn paradise. God is obligated to me because I have paid in advance for admission to paradise. The transaction is flawed on several levels. First, it assumes a threshold. There is a cut-off in the ratio of good to bad. The problem is that we don’t know where the cut-off is. So…..we make one up. Typically, we decide that the cut-off is low enough that we are safe……no matter how much good we do…..no matter how much bad we do. Ask a Christian if they are going to paradise. The reply will often be, “Of course……I’m a good person”. And perhaps, if you tally up the good and the bad, they are. The second problem, the bigger problem, is that the transaction puts us in charge. We earn paradise. God is obligated to give us eternal bliss once we have crossed the threshold, once we have done enough good. God serves us. A transactional relationship is based on obligation. You can even have a transactional relationship with an enemy. Governments do this all of the time. You can detest God……and still do a lot of good. In a transactional relationship, it is possible to detest God and still earn paradise.

The promise goes something like this:

God loves you. God hopes that you will love him; but, he does not force you to love him. God wants a reciprocal relationship based on love. Eternity in paradise flows out of that two way, love based, relationship.

In the end, our relationship with God is a marriage. It is very much like a marriage between a man and a woman. Your marriage can be a transactional deal based on obligation or it can be a promise based relationship founded on love. It is the same with God. Marriages based on obligation often fail. Marriages based on enduring love last.

If your relationship with God is transactional…….based on obligation…….you should not expect it to be eternal.

If your relationship with God is founded on a promise…….based on love……..it will be eternal.

This is the heart of Christianity.

This is God’s promise.

So…..the question that you must face is this:

“Is your relationship with God transactional…….or is it based on promise and love?”

“Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me. In my Father’s house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also.

Jesus explaining the promise, John 14:1-3, ESV

Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory, obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls.

Peter explaining the link between love and paradise,
1 Peter 1, 8-9, ESV

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.

John 3:16, ESV

You can debate the politics of it til the cows come home. We can and will disagree on much of it. But, I think that we can all agree that the world is a mess.

Ukraine, Gaza, Iran, Immigration, Crime, Riots, Corrupt leaders, and the Debt.

I could go on as I am sure you could.

And yet, in the face of all of this evil, God makes a promise. In the end, he will make it all right. Jesus will return, clean house, and collect those who love him. He will take his people to a “spacious place”…….forever.

Jesus will come.

As a matter of fact, that is arguably the most powerful prayer of petition in the Bible.

Come……Lord Jesus.

And yet, we don’t seem to use it very much. When was the last time you prayed:

Come……Lord Jesus.

I’m not talking about: Come Lord Jesus…….fix my car.

I’m talking about: Come Lord Jesus……….end this mess of a world and bring on paradise.

When you get right down to it……that is a pretty terrifying prayer. If you don’t believe me…..re-read Revelation.

What it comes down to is this:

The world is broken……but it is our broken. We are used to it. We think we understand it. The talking heads tell us that they know how to fix it. We tell ourselves that we have it under control…….or that we will soon elect a government that will fix it all. Never mind that over 200 years of history tells us that it gets worse after each election cycle.

The fix is not my political party……or yours. The fix is Jesus. And he will fix it……all of it. That is a promise, not from me, not from your favorite politician……….but from God himself.

So…….why don’t we pray:

Come Lord Jesus.

It is because we are afraid. And our fear is a direct measure of our lack of faith.

So……my challenge this week is to add this prayer to your daily devotional.

Come Lord Jesus.

If you have trouble with this prayer, then explore your faith……or lack of faith……in God’s greatest promise. Because fixing this problem in your faith will change your life.

He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.”

Revelation 21:4, ESV

The topic this week is difficult. It is intended for Christians……..people who have accepted Jesus as their saviour. I want to begin with a disclaimer. It is not my intention to damn Christians who don’t practice their faith the same way I do. This post is not about issues of style.

We moved to a new town. We tried out several churches. We settled in on one that we liked. We tried out several different services based mainly on the type of worship music that they played: rock, acoustic, traditional organ, etc. If you had asked us what we were doing…….we would have said we were “church shopping”.

Years later, our long time pastor retired. We hired a new young pastor. And a lot of people left. They went “shopping” and found a pastor that suited them better.

Church shopping is common. It is a normal part of the landscape. But, there is a danger. Every church is different. Every pastor is different. In our case, we were concentrating on issues of style. And that is fine. But, there are issues of substance. It is possible for a church to choose policies and beliefs that are different enough that they are a problem. I recently spoke with a leader of a church. If you asked her, she would describe herself as a Christian. The name of her church included the word Christian. She is a good person. She does a great deal of community service and she guides her church to do so as well; but, she said, “I have a problem with Jesus”.

And that gets to the heart of this week’s post.

I am concerned about an idea that pervades Christianity…….an attitude that, I fear, is growing. It is the idea that we get to go shopping. We get to try on the different “flavors” of Christianity until we find one that suits us…….until we find a church that agrees with us.

At the extreme…….we find a church that tells us that what we believe……is right. We find a church that tells us that God…….agrees with us.

And this really doesn’t sound too bad until you give it a good hard look.

Imagine your first day in paradise. You walk into a room. You have a legal pad and a pen so that you can take notes. God walks in. He sits down across the table from you. And the questions begin. What about abortion, divorce, tithing, etc. In essence, the meeting is a job interview. The purpose of the meeting is to determine if the guy across the table has the same values. I suspect that something along those lines is what we all expect.

But, here’s the thing.

Who is asking the questions?

Who is the one trying to decide if the guy on the other side of the table……is “suitable”?

Is God searching you…..to see if you are a good hire?

Or

Are you grilling God to see if his positions align with yours?

In essence, the question is this:

“Who is in charge here?”

It sounds ridiculous. But, isn’t that what a lot of us are doing when we go “church shopping”?

If you shop around until you find a church that agrees with your positions in every particular…….if you shop around until you find a church that doesn’t convict you of any failure……if you shop around until you find a church that tells you you are right……then you will learn nothing. You will not grow. Because, you will have become the guy in charge. You will have become the guy who plans on interviewing God to see if his positions agree with yours. You will have become the guy trying to decide if God is a suitable hire.

Good Luck.

“I don’t know if there is a God, but if there is, he’s got a lot of explaining to do.

Robert Dinero describing his plan for conducting his upcoming “job interview”.

Sounds like a pretty innocent question.

We get up every day. We have a list of jobs to get done. We work our way through the list and then we go to bed.

If you consider it, every item on today’s “to-do” list is done to create a benefit. Even the ugliest thing we have ever done was done to achieve some benefit for someone. And that is the object of the exercise today. I want to explore whom we are trying to benefit.

When I was in basic training, I knew with crystal clarity whom I served…….but how about you…….today?

In a word……just exactly whom are you and I working for?

No matter how high you are on the social or business ladder, you are working for the benefit of someone. Even the president, like him or hate him, is working for the benefit of someone else. When push comes to shove……we all serve.

We are all servants……….but to whom?

My spouse
My family
My boss
Me
My political party
My appetites
My anger

Take 3 seconds and answer the question:

Whom do you serve?

Because…..if you don’t know in 3 seconds…..if you have to think about it, you are adrift. If you don’t know immediately whom you are serving, is it any wonder that you sometimes do things that, in retrospect, make no sense?

I am a Christian. When I get confused…….and that is every day…….I go to the Bible. The Bible is extremely clear on this subject.

I am to serve God, my creator.

But, specifically how?

Here too, the Bible is extremely specific.

Love God…….love everybody else.

Intellectually, at least, that is my answer.

So, I start my day.

I walk outside, I say, “Good morning Lord”. I pray, meditate, read the Bible. I ask God if he has anything specific that he wants from me……today. So far so good. I do some chores. Then I get in my truck to run some errands. And the wheels start to come off. Does the way I drive serve God? Does my interaction with the clerk at the DMV serve God? Does my interaction with the waitress at Twin Peaks serve God…….and what am I even doing there in the first place?

You get the point. It doesn’t take very long for me to find myself serving someone or something else from my list of God substitutes. It’s a rare day that I don’t make it to the bottom of my list at least once. It’s a rare day that I don’t spend a little time serving my anger. And when I serve my anger…….aren’t I really serving the author of my anger…….Satan?

I need to spend more time recognizing that I am a servant…….and that I serve God.

This is a truth that is easy to lose sight of.

But it is the truth.

Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward. You are serving the Lord Christ.

Paul, Collosians 3:23-24, ESV

But as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.”

Joshua. 24:15, ESV

Every morning this week, as I sit on my patio watching the day begin, a coyote has run across my backyard. I think he lives just west of my yard. He is coming from the yard just east of my yard. He takes a short cut across my back yard to get back to his home. The family that lives on the east raises chickens. I suspect that the coyote has been looking for an easy breakfast. He may already have found it. The coyote is not malevolent. He is just being a coyote……doing coyote stuff…… eating chickens. He weighs the risks and rewards, considers his past successes in crossing my yard and justifies the trip. But, his plans for today run contrary to my plans and my neighbor’s plans.

So…..I am setting up an ambush. I will wait with a shotgun and put an end to this predator. I will pick a spot that offers me a nice, clean, safe, shot, load the shotgun with buckshot, and kill the coyote. Please understand, the coyote has done me no harm, though he may, some day. His only offense is that his plan for today just doesn’t fit into my plan for my yard and my neighborhood.

Here’s how it will work. I have chosen a 10 yard by 10 yard patch of lawn. There is a nice place nearby for me to hide. There is a clean 20 yard shot with a good backstop. The patch of lawn is right on his path from the chicken coop on the east to his den, somewhere on the west. If he steps into that patch, he will die and it will not be pretty. The way that this is set up, the coyote’s only hope for survival is to not set foot in that small patch of my yard.

You’ve probably sensed a metaphor here. But, in this metaphor, I am not the hunter. I am the coyote. I am not malevolent, I am just doing human stuff. And just like everybody else, not all of the stuff that I do is OK. I stand at the edge of a place that I know in my heart is a not a good place. But, there is something in there that I really want. I consider the reward, weigh the risks, and come up with a justification. On a good day, I can come up with several justifications. And sometimes…….I go for it.

Examples:

Using the copier at work for personal copies.

Parking in the handicapped spot…….just for a few minutes.

Carrying stuff in the bed of my pickup…..uncovered. Because sometimes it blows away.

Speeding……5-10 mph over the limit.

The problem is this: There is an intelligent, malevolent being who is working out his plan. He knows me. He knows my vulnerabilities. He is setting up his ambush. It is carefully designed, customized for me, and highly effective. If I set foot in his “kill zone,” he is confident that there is no escape for me. Furthermore, it is not just one ambush. He sets up dozens of them every day.

This is my daily encounter……..with Satan. I wander into his trap and he wins a small battle. The ambush may not end up for me as badly as it might for the coyote. But, it will put a little more distance between me and the righteousness of God. The trouble is that the small battles add up. If I am not careful, I can get comfortable wandering around in the bad places. If I am not careful, I can dumb down my morality. If I am not careful, I can find myself separated from God.

Back to the metaphor. I know that you are wondering. How did my coyote ambush work out this morning?

Well, the coyote didn’t show up. He made a smart choice. He made it home to his family. Good for him.

But………. I’ll be back, maybe not tomorrow……..maybe next week……maybe somewhere else in my yard. You can count on it. I am nothing……if not persistent.

Satan is like that.

Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.

1 Peter, 5:8, ESV