Good advice, and the problem of taking it

[Listen,] “for I give you good precepts; do not forsake my teaching.”
-Proverbs 4:2

When I was very young, my father built me a great fort in the backyard. It was two storeys tall with walls any everything. We had it for several years, but I grew up, and there really was no need for it anymore. So he decided to take it down.

Since it was going to be destroyed, I asked permission to alter it for a few weeks. I made it more rugged and military-like, with a rope to climb to the second floor rather than a ladder, and boards taken out for easy water gun fire. I was generally making a mess. There were boards all over the backyard.

My dad was upset at this, and he told me to, promptly, clean up the mess before I stepped on a nail. I argued and rolled my eyes, but he would have none of it. Finally, I stormed off.

And as I was walking, I realized that there was a board stuck to my shoe. I had stepped on it as I stormed, and the exposed nail had gone into the sole of my shoe. I kept walking, hoping that my father had not seen it, since it proved every word he had said. In fact, he didn’t notice. I cleaned up the yard and told him the story years later.

It was a rather silly point. I cannot tell you why I was so opposed to cleaning the yard. I suppose I was just interested in my own thing, and that got in the way.

Is that how we view the Bible? As something that gets in the way of our own thing? In truth, the world is filled with pitfalls, and the Bible, in part, is designed to help us avoid them. It is designed to lead us to life.

Sometimes we are just too involved with what we are doing to notice that board in the yard with the nail sticking out. We say, “But I want to do this!”, not realizing that something more important is at stake. Something larger than our petty lusts and desires is going on.

When Jesus came, He came so that we could have life. But the words He was saying rubbed certain people the wrong way. They were only interested in this small issue, or this tiny pleasure. They were so blinded by things they were doing that they did not understand that something huge was going on.

So they killed Him.

Do we avoid the Word of God because we’re too busy with our own thing? Do we ignore some of its commands? We may think we would lose out of some pleasure if we turned to Christ, but we wouldn’t. Instead, we would gain something so much greater.