“Give careful thought to the paths for your feet and be steadfast in all your ways. Do not turn to the right or the left; keep your foot from evil.” Proverbs 4:25-27

Heading into the garage, my eyes were drawn to the door’s opening. Attention grabbed me in the form of a tiny anolis (a little Florida lizard) that suddenly found itself caught between me and the garage. And it was FLEEING! The fearful thing that caused its tremendous speed… was ME! But even though it didn’t know any better, it was fleeing toward a greater danger than any human.

My garage can be described by many different words… cluttered, disorganized, messy etc., but ‘kitchen’ isn’t one of them. There is absolutely NOTHING for a little lizard-like creature to eat in my garage. I’ve found their dead, dried up bodies behind ‘stuff’ stored there. Having run in there for whatever lizardly reason, reality didn’t turn out as planned. As an intelligent creature at the top of God’s creation, all I can do is shake my head. Because the lizard… is ME!

Sometimes I amaze myself at the choices I make. And one of the most perplexing questions anyone can ask is, “Why did I do THAT?” Just this morning I read a statement that made me stop to consider some of my own movements. 

“How we behave, over time, reflects what we believe; what we do reflects what we desire; our labors reflect our loves.” *

Difficult choices are really no surprise. EVERYONE deals with SOMETHING, and we ALL have stuff occupying our hearts that does not belong, and will not thrive, THERE! But THERE… it is. Distractedly, having just laid eyes on the capitalized word ‘EVERYONE,’ my heart suddenly lept toward a way out! Because when fleeing to bad choices, excuses are easy paths for convicted sinners.

There’s an old Indian story that presents a boy with a life lesson from his grandfather, “inside all of us grow 2 fighting wolves, 1 good and 1 evil.” When the boy asked, “Which one wins?” the wise grandfather replied, “the one you feed the most.” The story hits home as I look at my heart and see decorations from attitudes and choices. All which I never intended. But, there they are.

Growing up, I never really liked the book of James because it forced me to look at my deeds and intentions. Now that we are focusing on it at Bible Study, I remember WHY I never cared for it. Darkness hates light, and when light encounters it… darkness flees. Having experienced God’s ways of doing things, I recognize that He is trying to show me something I didn’t really want to see… the consequences of fleeing into dark and unfruitful places! Ya think He wants me to watch where I’m going???!!!!

Where do you see YOUR life headed?

*DesiringGod.org Jon Bloom November 4, 2021