There was a rip-roaring ruckus in the girls’ bathroom last night. As I listened from the safety of my own room, my husband – brave dad that he is – lined all four of them up get to the bottom of it.
It all started because one girl was curious: What would happen if I shot this roll of toilet paper with a water gun?
Now, we do not have a precedent in our house for this sort of thing being “okay”. Plus, we have a “only shoot the water gun in the bathtub” rule.
But alas, curiosity prevailed and the first squirt was fired.
Sister #2 wasn’t about to throw away her shot, so she took a turn as well.
Quite enamored by this experiment, when it was sister #3’s turn to wield this water-fueled weapon, she really let that roll of toilet paper have it.
By the time my husband intervened – inciting the weeping and gnashing of teeth stage of the ruckus – one of the defendants later informed me that the poor roll of TP had been rolled into the sink “like an elephant pushing something in a mud wallow”. (Can you tell we are studying metaphors and similes this week? She gave this description with un-penitent pride.)
Exhibit A
As I heard the story from the now in-famous Three Amigas (and their little side-kick), it struck me that this is often what sin looks like.
It usually starts with curiosity. “What would happen if…? What would it feel like if…?”
And we pull the trigger. Just once.
No negative consequences? A little more can’t hurt.
It’s fun, it’s cool, no one has to know.
But by now the trigger fingers have become twitchy trigger fingers and are just waiting for an opportunity to be trigger-happy. This is what it looks like to be “enslaved to sin”. We don’t want to stop.
Exhibit B
The damage often isn’t apparent right away, but after enough hits, it can’t be hidden anymore.
What my husband didn’t know until this afternoon is that had he not intervened when he did, the three rolls of TP on top of the toilet bear watermarks which suggest they would have suffered a similar fate as the first roll.
Which brings me to the gist of my light-hearted little analogy:
-the next time the curiosity of rebellion invites you to take a step forward, take a step back instead and use your imagination about what could happen. God gave us an imagination for a reason. Put it to use! Don’t just imagine the immediate outcome. Multiply one shot by 5 and 10 and 20. Whatever could be damaged – what does it look like now?
-if you find yourself enslaved by something, know that a Rescuer is near, and ready to intervene and stop the damage in its tracks. Jesus isn’t just a Rescuer. He is a restorer of trigger-fingers. Make a ruckus but don’t play around until He comes. Call for help.
And remember, the physical presence of Jesus on earth right now is within His followers. You can’t do this alone.
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