snipers on the watchtower

"Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour." -1 Peter 5:8

 

Prologue: years ago, I hiked this mountain trail in southeastern Colorado. Five miles up to a lake. I hiked alone. The summer foliage, thick. The only noise came from me trudging along the trail. About three miles up, a jarring series of thuds alarmingly jolted my senses: a massive elk bounded away from near the trail, from near me, and into the forest. 

Elk vs Average Human Size

Until it moved, I didn't notice the elk's presence whatsoever. Elk can sometimes act aggressively toward people. If, in that moment, it'd decided to charge me, I would've been badly hurt. I wasn't doing anything wrong, but my choice to hike alone and unprepared wasn't wise.

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So I recently finished reading a provocative and sad biography about Pete Rose. 

For the non-fans: Pete Rose played pro baseball for 24 years. Rose holds the all-time record for most hits. A 17-time All-Star, Rose also won three World Series titles.

But he's not eligible for the Hall of Fame because, as a manager, he placed bets on baseball and was banned from the game. MLB forbids(*) its players, umps, baseball teams, or anyone employed with any team to place bets on baseball games. This rule is posted in every MLB stadium locker room; every time Rose walked into and out of any locker room, he walked past a sign reminding of this rule.

 

He still gambled on baseball. Sometimes, he gambled thousands of dollars a day.

 

Rose himself estimated that his permanent banishment from baseball has cost him recognition, his reputation, and hundreds of millions of dollars. He appealed for reinstatement, but never received it. He died, polarized and a pariah from the game he loved so much.

Why? Why risk so much achievement and blessing for something so banal?

 

It is true that God can redeem all things. It's true that God can make something out of the sins, mistakes, and wrong choices we choose to make in our lives.

But that doesn't mean it will be the same as if we'd chosen the wiser path from the start. Undoing a wrong turn doesn't happen instantly. When we choose a path that isn't right for us (or when we end up on such a path non-purposefully) it follows that it'll take us longer to get back to where we should be.

If we get back at all.

And that's the sobering, scary part. Sometimes, I'm prone to thinking that I'm more resilient and stronger than I actually am. Don't you also sometimes think this way? It's not just me. We dabble with this behavior or this way of thinking or living, breezily confident it'll have no long-term effect on us. And then I read a verse like 1 Peter 5:8, admonishing his hearers to 'be watchful'.

How watchful am I? Are you?

 

Are we watchful over our lives, our hearts, our minds, our souls? Probably not as much as we should be. And if we are, we're super-attuned to one sort of pitfall, but naively ignorant of many others.

Every lie we tell helps us become more comfortable with telling another. So many addicts began with one dabble, not meaning for it to consume everything about their lives. Every gossiper began with one ordinary conversation. Every embezzler starts with some small amount of cash. Every jealous thought we entertain and don't resist makes it easier for other jealousies to fester in and poison our hearts.

I'm not saying to stay paranoid and spooked about everything in life. That's no way to live. 

 

I guess what I'm saying is what 1 Peter 5:8 says. Stay alert. Stay street-smart (in the spiritual, emotional sense as well as the physical sense). The adversary roams, looking for any way to distract and devour us if given the chance. The road of any sin, if continued to its logical end, eventually leads to absolute ruin. It's like choosing the path that goes past snipers posted on the watchtower, hoping that they all have bad aim when you stroll past.

    “Good and evil both increase at compound interest. That is why the little decisions you and I make every day are of such infinite importance. The smallest good act today is the capture of a strategic point from which, a few months later, you may be able to go on to victories you never dreamed of. An apparently trivial indulgence in lust or anger today is the loss of a ridge or railway line or bridgehead from which the enemy may launch an attack otherwise impossible (p. 132).” Mere Christianity, C.S. Lewis

 

It's not worth it. It's not too late to turn back.

 

Respect how you're created. Respect whose image you represent. Remember you live in a beautiful world, and that this beautiful world has its evils and dangers as well.

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Epilogue: I briskly turned around and descended down the mountain. Two more miles of hiking to see a lake wasn't so alluring anymore. If I'd chosen a wiser way to hike to begin with, there'd be no qualms to continuing on the trail. I'll see the end of that trail some other time.

*For those keeping score, the MLB rule states: "Any player, umpire, or club, or league official, or employee, who shall bet any sum whatsoever upon any baseball game in connection with which the bettor has a duty to perform shall be declared permanently ineligible."