Today’s scripture: Proverbs 22:11-20 (NRSV) (The Message) (KJV) What might God be saying to me?
My thoughts (Tyler Connoley):
The lazy person says, “There is a lion outside! I shall be killed in the streets!”
Lordsburg, NM is a little town about 45 miles from my house. It used to be a railroad stop on the Southern Pacific Line, and was once a booming little burg. Now, its largest employer is the U.S. Boarder Patrol, and there isn’t much to draw people to it.
Another fact about Lordsburg: Its elevation is 2,000 feet lower than Silver City (where I live), and it’s usually at least 10 degrees Fahrenheit hotter. Those ten degrees make a lot of difference for one class of resident in Lordsburg — rattlesnakes. We also have rattlesnakes in Silver City, but they have more of them in Lordsburg. And the snakes in Lordsburg are more active, because their cold-blooded bodies find it easier to pump blood in the heat. Particularly in the winter, when rattlesnakes go into hibernation, Lordsburg’s snakes are active much later in the season than ours.
I know a woman in Silver City who has a brother in Lordsburg. Whenever she and her brother get together, he always has to come to her house. She never goes to visit him, because she’s afraid of the rattlesnakes. Of course, as I already said, we have rattlesnakes in Silver City, and it’s not like Lordsburg is overrun with snakes, but that’s her excuse. So, her brother makes the trek up the hill to see his sister, driving two hours round trip, supposedly so his sister doesn’t have to worry about rattlesnakes in the bushes. But, probably more likely, because she doesn’t want to leave her comfortable house in the mountains and go to hot and dusty, tiny Lordsburg.
I think this is what today’s Scripture is talking about. Often, when we don’t want to do something, we use our fears as a reason, when they’re really just an excuse. The lazybones in today’s Scripture says if he leaves his house, he’ll be eaten by a lion. My friend says if she visits her brother, she’ll be bitten by a rattlesnake. But no one really thinks those fears are justified, they’re just a convenient reason for not doing something.
When have you heard those same kinds of excuses coming from your mouth? “I can’t go to church. The crowds scare me.” “I can’t visit my friend in the hospital. I wouldn’t know what to say.” “I can’t be honest with my family. They might reject me, if they really knew me.” “I can’t . . . I can’t . . . I can’t . . .”
Thought for the day: What are you not doing, because it frightens you? Are your fears justified, or more of an excuse?
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