Look Before You Leap

I

 love family reunions, especially now since I don't see my family all that often.  I am here in Texas and they are in North Carolina and it is sometimes difficult to get away to visit as much as I'd like.  But when I get the chance I take it.  My dad's side of the family gets together in the summer and my mom's side gets together at Christmas at my grandmother's home. 

As with all families, we swap war stories and old tales from the past.  The stories are always the same, and no matter how often they are told, or how much they are embellished, they still are a delight to listen to.  Every one, of course, has his own version of the events and, of course, it is the only true and correct one!

Every Christmas, without fail, I become the target of laughs, jeers, snickers, and jokes for something that happened when I was roughly eight years old.  Each time this particular story is related, my mom, my dad, my aunt and uncle, my cousins, and my grandmother usually end up in tears.  So, why should I withhold this story from you guys?  After all, it does have a good devotional lesson in it.

This particular Christmas, I had asked my grandparents for a set of roller skates.  Now, these were not the fancy kind with the boot attached.  Instead, these attached to your foot and were fitted with a key.  Christmas morning finally arrived and I tore into the box, removed the skates, and put them on.  I gingerly made my way down the front steps and crossed the front yard.  I had no difficulty walking in the grass and figured skating would be a cinch.  When I got to the pavement, however, an entirely different scenario unfolded.  One leg went south, one went north, and the rest of me went straight to the ground.  I couldn't stand up, I couldn't walk, I couldn't do anything.  I had no sure footing.  In order to regain the house, I walked across the yard and literally crawled up the front steps.  My mom met me at the door, laughing so hard she was crying.  She still has the same reaction today.

My problem that day was over confidence. I was so sure that skating would be a breeze that I took no note of the difficulty it presented.  I didn't prepare myself and I paid the consequences, sore knees, sore bottom, and sore pride. 

In his first letter to the Corinthians, Paul addressed this issue.  In 1 Corinthians 10:12 Paul writes, "Therefore let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall." This is both good advice and a solemn warning.  Too often we, as Christians, run the risk of becoming overly confidant.  We know how ministry should be done, we know how the pastor should do his job, we know how other people should live and what decisions they should make.  Yet, when it comes to handling our own lives and situations, we fail miserably and end up with sore hearts, sore feelings, and sore pride. 

Paul is right on target when he uses the word "thinks" in the scripture.  There is a profound difference between thinking something and knowing it.  Paul did not say he wanted to "think about Christ", but that he wanted "to know Christ."  We do not make mistakes in life because we don't know something. Rather, we make them because we "think" we know.  Jesus came that we could have true knowledge about God.  In John 17:3, he says, “And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent." The questions we must ask ourselves are these:  Are we secure in our knowledge of Jesus Christ?  Do we live our lives according to what we know about him?  Or are our thoughts, words, and actions based on what we "think" we know about him?