For people who hate discipline
and only get more stubborn,
There’ll come a day when life tumbles in and they break,
but by then it’ll be too late to help them.
Scripture quotations from The Message. © 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002 by Eugene Peterson. Used by permission of NavPress, Colorado Springs, CO. All rights reserved.
By the time I was in my 30s, everyone knew about studies that revealed the dangers of sun exposure… how the harmful UVA and UVB rays could cause everything from premature wrinkling to fatal skin cancers. Like many, I continued to tan long after I knew the potential consequences. And just last week, I had cryosurgery on an ugly “sunspot” on my chest, while another raised area near my collarbone had to be biopsied for potential Basal Cell Carcinoma! Thankfully, it was a benign keratosis… but now I have these two raw places that must be babied and tended while they heal… and I have once again been warned to stay out of the sun and to wear sunscreen at all times. Not suntan lotion… sunscreen with an SPF (Sun Protection Factor) – the higher the number, the better!
I was stubborn. I liked the looks of a deep tan, and I worked hard to maintain one! And then the day came when some suspicious spots began to appear on my body, and the doctor began to tell me that some were “pre-cancerous.” Thankfully, I have dodged the fate of many… my mother had to have plastic surgery on her nose last year following the removal of a cancerous lesion (and she wasn’t even a sun worshiper like I was!)… and I recently read a magazine article about a woman in Texas who had to have multiple plastic surgeries on her lip following the removal of a very deep malignancy. For them, it was too late to think about sunscreen, wearing a hat, or staying out of the harmful rays… at least in that instance. And for me, it’s too late for the creamy smooth skin of my grandmother, who wore a hat, long sleeves and even gloves whenever she was out in the sun for most of her 100 years…regardless of the temperature. I am forever freckled and marked for my dogged obstinacy!
This is not totally about staying out of the sun! There are countless ways in which we think we know better than the experts… including God! We are often more concerned with pleasing ourselves than with doing what we know we ought to do… or pleasing God. How many times have you said, “LORD… one of these days, I’ll do this or that for You.”? How often have you said, “I’ll give up XYZ and do what God wants… but not today!”? Just how often do you listen to God… and to others He sends into your life to guide your path?
Here’s the deal… God is incredibly patient with us… to a point. When He has had enough… or He sees that we are not going to change our ways and listen to Him, God starts to allow us to experience consequences. In my case, cryosurgery and biopsies have caused me to become quite diligent about wearing sunscreen and protecting myself from the sun’s harmful rays. For an elderly friend of mine, three near-misses with other drivers in the same day have caused her to reconsider driving. As she put it, “When God gives you THREE signs in one outing, I think you ought to listen!” Hopefully she will really follow through, put down her keys, and allow others to chauffeur her around from now on.
What about you? Where are you being stubborn and insisting on your own way? Do you see that you are trying God’s patience… and possibly that of many in your midst? Don’t you think it’s time to consider your actions… and potential consequences… to make the necessary changes before things go too far? Isn’t it time to start listening to God and those He sends to guide you? Aren’t you ready to operate fully in His wisdom… or are you willing to test the limits of God’s tolerance? What will it take to fully get your attention? Is it worth the risk?
©2013 Debbie Robus
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