Weekend Talk: Greasy and slippery places
Af someone poured soapy water on your living room tiled floor, how would you walk across the floor?
You would walk carefully to avoid slipping and falling, holding on to railings or furniture, and you would certainly watch where you are going.
It is no secret that living on earth is like walking along slippery places, dicey situations, and slimy circumstances that call for watchfulness.
On being careful
These days when you ask someone, “How are you doing?” the response comes like, “By God’s grace and by being careful!” People have realised that being careful or circumspect is prudent for our daily living.
The way of life is full of thorny temptations, coming from what we say and how we say it, whom we meet and what transpires between us, whom we trust and whom we cannot trust, how we handle what is entrusted to us, and where we go.
On this journey of life, our fondness for smoothness, ease, and comfort is often responsible for some problematic outcomes of our travelling.
We talk freely without considering how words hurt; we yield to the dictates of our desires without holding back; and we like to harvest where we didn’t sow.
The Lord Jesus called the situation where we choose to do what pleases us over what pleases God the broad way.
The difficult, self-disciplined, and godly way he refers to as the narrow way.
And he invites us to walk on the narrow way, for that is what leads to fruitfulness.
Minefield
On our way from the city of Malakal to Rent in South Sudan, we got information that the unexplored road our driver would use was full of landmines due to the protracted war in that country.
“Therefore,” the driver was told, “be careful where you pass.”
Then, somewhere along the rough road, we came across signposts indicating where landmines were located. Our experienced driver meandered around the landmines. One false diversion and our vehicle would have been blown up!
“Drive carefully” was a timely advice to our driver, and we, the passengers, had no business carelessly getting out of the vehicle anywhere along the journey.
We don’t have landmines littered along our trunk roads in Ghana, but the road safety campaign mantras continue to sound the warning: “Drive carefully!” and “Keep your eyes on the road.”
Therefore, “be careful” is an all-time counsel that we ignore to our peril.
Look carefully
Why did the apostle Paul admonish believers to "Look carefully how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, making the best use of the time, because the days are evil" (Ephesians 5:15-16)? It is because “the days are evil.”
We first come across “evil days” in Ecclesiastes 12:1 when Solomon the wise man tells young people to “Remember your Creator in the days of your youth, before the evil days come . . .”
The evil days are days of trouble; therefore, be careful how you live, where you go, what you do, and what you say, so that you don’t land in trouble.
To walk circumspectly, “not as fools but as wise,” calls for walking cautiously, being conscious of our environment as if we were navigating a minefield.
I like the bit that says “not as fools but as wise”.
How do we differentiate between been wise and being foolish in the way we do things in life?
Simple: “The fear of God is the beginning of wisdom.”
Upright highway
Proverbs 16:17 says, "The highway of the upright leads away from evil; he who guards his way protects his life."
This well-known scripture means, as one commentator puts it, “Choosing to live in line with God’s will rather than drifting through life thoughtlessly.”
Our slippery days are filled with spiritual and moral dangers, such as dabbling in occultism, flirting in immorality, and the wild goose chase after wealth that causes us to fall.
Time is of much essence for our spiritual growth, yet we misuse time these days with reckless abandon.
Imaging wasting precious time roaming about on social media watching pointless contents when we can use the time profitably.
Vulnerable times
One of the most vulnerable moments is when we fall sick, for that is when we abandon our faith and run after evil ways to get relief.
May the Lord guide us!
Hard core politicians have realised that politics is a slippery enterprise.
Some people were nice and respectful until they entered politics. Even in politics, the wise know how to stay gentle.
Hunger and deprivation make us vulnerable—like Esau who gave up his birth right just for lunch.
It is the same as greed that makes us take what doesn’t belong to us and end up in financial mess.
May the good Lord make us live carefully, so as to avoid the slippery places and situations littered along our daily journey.
