Dealing With Bad Choices
Fine quesadillas in Cedar City. And a nice local craft beer.
On my ride to meet Rich in Grand Junction to tour Colorado and New Mexico, I stopped in Mesquite, Nevada to fill my bike’s tank at a Sinclair station and my belly with a Western Bacon Cheeseburger at Carl’s Jr. The mediocre burger could have been an omen. 50 miles later, beyond St. George, I noticed the gas gauge was almost zero, with 30 miles of range left. That bothered me, my CTX1300 can near 200 miles on a tank, so I slowed down and looked for a station before my scheduled stop 50 more miles in Cedar City. The needle continued to fall, then found a station 10 miles before Cedar. With the new gas, the mileage slowly improved, leading me to suspect I got some bad gas in Mesquite.
That night my stomach got tight, and diarrhea got me up about 4 times that night—the burger bit me back. By morning, the bike and I were fine after losing the bad gas and burger, but I learned another lesson. When we pick up something bad, lose it a quick as we can.
We pick up boatloads of bad stuff. Habits. Thoughts. Behaviors. Beliefs. So God desires we regularly “Test everything. Hold on to the good. Avoid every kind of evil” (1 Thessalonians 5:21-22). How do we quit holding onto the evil?
First, recognize that God calls some acts sin because they bring more damage than joy. Yep, they bring some temporary pleasure, or we wouldn’t do them so much. We need to trust that God knows the best better than w. He’s God, the creator, and we’re what he created. Too often I’ve thought I knew better than he, and must remember that. Not to guilt myself, but to remember to rely on the omnipotent one, not the weak one.
Second, my body and bike both tried to get rid of the bad as soon as they could—the major point of this post. My failure to quickly end some bad behaviors continued far too long, and caused far too much damage. In a dispute between Jesus and the Pharisees, he said, “If one of you has a son or an ox that falls into a well on the Sabbath day, will you not immediately pull him out?” (Luke 14:15).
When we identify danger, whether spiritual or physical, we need to act immediately, to the best of our ability. Can we solve the issue and remove it totally immediately? Sometimes yes. Other times it requires growth over time, but we begin the process as soon as we can.
One major factor: we clear the decks by asking God for forgiveness, and realize grace is greater than all our sins. Not to use grace to rationalize and continue our sin, but to keep the past from dragging us down.
Kick Starting the Application
Take a quick spiritual inventory. Do you find something that fails the test of being good? If so, how can you begin the process of growth?