The Voices are Calling

For the first time in 21 years, we seem to have a mouse problem at home. You know how it goes, one here, one there. The other morning Patti and I were at the counter eating breakfast when what looked like a mouse nose was sticking out from under the corner of the stove. I said, “Is that a mouse peeking out?” Patti assured me it was only a shadow. On cue the “shadow” ran across the kitchen floor and into the next room. “I thought so,” I mumbled.

So, it’s trapping season. Let’s just say mice don’t seem to be the sharpest tool in the toolbox. I’m convinced they could watch me bait the trap and put it out and as soon as I’m out of sight they go for it. Uh hello, it’s a trap. How could they not see that?

That’s a good question to ponder. Why do so many people ambush their own lives? Isn’t life difficult enough without having to deal with so many self-inflicted wounds? Here’s the bottom line. Sin is foolish. Sometimes I hear people say sin is fun or exciting, but the reality is that sin is stupid. 

The very definition of a fool is one who is out of touch with reality. It’s the mouse watching me set the trap then running right into it. What wasn’t clear there? God has created the world with a certain order. Not only physically but with social and moral and spiritual order. These orders are as binding as the physical order. This is reality. Period.

How would you describe someone who jumped off a ten-story building thinking he could defy gravity and fly? Whatever you believe personally about gravity, reality is going to win out in the end. That’s why it’s foolish to deny the obvious. So it is with God’s moral, social and spiritual order. It’s stupid to think you can violate God’s order without consequence. Whatever you believe, in the end God wins. That’s reality.

This is why Proverbs warns us if sinners entice you, do not consent. Don’t go with them. Don’t walk in the way with them. Nothing good can come from partnering up with those determined to run to evil. If a rogue gang of mice are headed towards the trap for an evening out, run the other way. It’s not what you think. It’s a trap.

Even a bird gets this. It’s useless to spread the baited net in the sight of any bird. Apparently, a bird is a bit more wary than a mouse. If the bird sees you setting the trap it won’t come in. It’s not safe. Yet fools set their own trap and walk right into it. They ambush their own lives time and time again.

There is no shortage of fools. They are going to do their thing and suffer the consequences. But if sinners entice you, do not consent. Don’t go with them. Don’t follow them. Walk away from them. No, actually, run the other way. This is serious business.

So how do sinners entice us these days? The Proverb paints a picture of thugs hanging out on street corners or in the back alley beckoning us to join them. I don’t really think most of us are vulnerable to such invitations. No, today it’s more subtle than that. I can’t help but think of what C. S. Lewis wrote: The greatest evil is not now done in those sordid “dens of crime” that Dickens loved to pain…But it is conceived and ordered (moved, seconded, carried and minuted) in clean, carpeted, warmed and well-lighted offices by quiet men with while collars and cut fingernails and smooth-shaven cheeks who do not need to raise their voice. [1]

Who are the voices calling out to you? Maybe it’s the invitation to shade the truth or find a loophole to make a buck at someone else’s expense. It’s the chance to advantage self by disadvantaging the community. It doesn’t really matter if that’s the way it’s done in your industry. Wrong is wrong. Let’s remember that just because something is legal doesn’t make it morally right. It’s about righteousness, justice and equity.

Perhaps sinners entice you at work or school or wherever you hang around with others. What’s a little indiscretion among friends? Peer pressure is real, and it extends far beyond our teenage years. Typically, disaster happens one small, easy to excuse, step at a time. I couldn’t count the number of times someone has sat across my desk weeping or with that deer in the headlight look muttering, how could this have happened? Answer, one small step at a time.

For some the voices that entice come through social media or the internet. There’s no shortage of ways to ambush our lives with only a few clicks. How many Christians are quick to throw stones at what everybody else is doing wrong all the while feeding on internet images that are deeply offensive to God. We call out the sexually deviant all the while excusing our own vice we keep hidden. We lock the doors and windows and set the security system to keep the bad guys out then we turn right around and open the door to evil through a few clicks in a dimly lit basement. What are we doing? How can we not see the trap?

To be skillful at living you must be aware and discerning about what voices you allow to influence your life. I really doubt the sinners that are enticing you this week are lurking in the shadows and back alleys. They are more subtle but just as destructive. Who are they for you? What voices are you listening to?  Where have you allowed compromise? The voices are loud and relentless. My friend, do not walk in the way with them, keep your feet from their path. Do not consent, or you will end up ambushing your own life.  

[1] C.S. Lewis, The Screwtape Letters Revised Edition (New York: Macmillan Publishing Company, 1982), X.