Here's one I posted as a facebook note a while back and I just thought it would be worth adding it to my blog. It was originally posted on Monday, February 2, 2009 at 1:51pm.
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I was sitting in my room this morning, minding my own business, when the fire alarm began blaring rather abruptly in Fletcher Hall. Though it caught me off guard, I understood the possible implications of its cacophony and lights. Within moments, I was going from room to room, ushering the girls out according to the established procedure: lights off, doors shut.
One by one the girls filed out onto the sidewalk, huddling together in the chilly morning air. I watched as some stepped out barefoot. Others came with wet hair wrapped in a towel, and a bathrobe hung around them - both evidences of a shower that had been cut short. There was no last-minute make-up or glamour, just girls who had left everything behind in order to escape the danger within. As we stood there together, unified by the spectacle, I took the next course of action and called for help: BBC Security.
On the other end of the line, Ken Morris picked up. I explained to him the nature of the situation and asked him to come check it out. After a quick clarification, he was on his way and arrived a few minutes later. Pleased to see that we had taken the situation seriously, he set to work, courageously entering the smoke filled dorm. It was then that the cause of the great displacement was made known by Mama Ronda: a burning bagel.
While it may seem anti-climactic to some, the girls slowly shuffled back into the smoke filled dorm, each one sliding easily back into their morning routines. The danger, seemingly more imagined than real, had passed. Like the rest, I too went back to minding my own business, and it wasn't until I headed off to my 9 o'clock class that I gave it a second thought.
It occurred to me then that the morning's events have a spiritual application, and as I walked down the sidewalk I found myself asking, "What if we as believers took sin as seriously as we had taken the fire alarm this morning?" Certainly, any one of us would evacuate a building that was engulfed in flames, but if we had known this morning that the culprit was an over-toasted bagel, we probably would not have responded in the same way. Yet isn't that how we view sin? We readily recognize things such as murder and rape as sin, but all too often we overlook the little lies and gossips. Sin is sin, and "whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles at just one point is guilty of breaking all of it" (James 2:10). I submit to you, then, that as believers, we need to be on guard for the burning bagels in our lives. If we turn a blind eye for too long, someday that bagel will burst into flame, and everyone knows that a flaming bagel has potential to burn down an entire building.
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Having considered this morning’s lesson myself, I thought it would be acceptable to share some of the applications and conclusions I have arrived at regarding sin:
(1) Take it seriously:
Exodus 34:7-8 “…he does not leave the guilty unpunished…”
Matthew 5:27-28 “…anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart.”
Romans 14:12 "...each of us will give an account of himself to God."
James 2:10 “…whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles at just one point is guilty of breaking all of it.”
(2) Turn the lights off and shut the door on it to prevent it from spreading:
Mark 9:43-48 “If your hand causes you to sin, cut it off…”
(3) Get as far away from it as you can:
Hebrews 12:1-3 “…let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles…”
(4) Call for help:
Isaiah 58:9 “Then you will call, and the LORD will answer; you will cry for help, and he will say: Here am I…”
(5) Confess it:
1 John 1:9 “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.”
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Labels: reflections