This car parked against the fence of our friend's yard caught my eye and I reached for my camera, a post birthing itself in my mind even as I focused my camera lens.What tells you this car has not been moved in a while?
Blackberry vines were perhaps the inspiration for the addage...."Give an inch and it will take a mile". Anyone ever struggling with blackberry vines on their property know they will take advantage of any space not actively filled by something else!
Anything standing still within its reach is quickly overgrown and entangled.
This car, once shiny and new, was someone's pride and joy. Now it stits abandoned. If left in its present state it will be subject to the law of Entropy. This law demands that all things left to themselves evolve to a state of decay..... iron to rust !
I thought of 2Pe 2:20 that says... "For if, after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and overcome, the latter end is worse for them than the beginning. "
As I stood looking at the car it struck me how easily it was engangled simply because it was sitting still.
It is our default is to 'sit' isn't it ?
Have you ever noticed that it takes will power to get up from sitting, to motivate ourselves to get back to work ? But it takes no will power at all to sit down to take a break ?
How easy it is to become complacant, to let things slide, to shrug and look the other way, to avoid the unpleasant and the difficult, to take the easy road.
How many words in scripture exhort us to put effort into our faith walk. Words like: strive, endure, persevere, walk, run!
Read the following verse found in Heb. 12:1
" Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us."
Now read it again with the picture in your mind of the blackberry vines so eager to entangle as a picture of sin.
Makes you WANT to run, doesn't it?
We don't need to DESIRE to sin - to do those things that are less than pleasing to the Lord - we just need to let go of our striving for righteousness, we just need to 'sit down' for a bit of a rest, and immediately the 'vines' of sin will advance upon us. How harmless they may appear at first! Just like every marriage started with a first date....as every addiction started with one harmless partaking of a substance .... so also we begin to slip in our faith walk with the first backward glance.
If we keep our eyes on Jesus, our hearts centered on pleasing Him, our feet running after Him, our hands eager to do His work.... the blackberry vines of sin will never find us an easy prey to entangle.
7 comments:
well put dear Julie
I feel that way about my weight problem. I just let myself "rest" a while, and not watch what I am eating and.....before I know it there´s 10 lbs more on my hips and stomach! That´s what I am trying to focus on in my life, so it really struck a cord, your post.
Thank you!
Julie. . .this is so true.
I smiled at your word engangled. .. such a great word. . being entangled by a gang of things that would harm us. . maybe you used it on purpose. . maybe not. . but keep it there, it fits.
Ohh.. Lovella! I must admit engangled was a tempory lapse of spell check! but the word is a good one ! I agree ! smile
I like your metaphors today, Julie! As ever, your post hits it's target squarely. I thank you!
So cool! When I read this post I envisioned my weightloss and how the weight can entangle a person who is not actively exercising or eating healthy...I don't EVER want to sit down again!
Wow, what a great reminder of when we aren't actively moving forward. Gives me chills.
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