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| From Psalms |
Psalm 94
1O Lord God, to whom vengeance belongeth;
O God, to whom vengeance belongeth, shew thyself.
2Lift up thyself, thou judge of the earth:
render a reward to the proud.
3LORD, how long shall the wicked,
how long shall the wicked triumph?
4How long shall they utter and speak hard things?
and all the workers of iniquity boast themselves?
5They break in pieces thy people, O LORD,
and afflict thine heritage.
6They slay the widow and the stranger,
and murder the fatherless.
7Yet they say, The LORD shall not see,
neither shall the God of Jacob regard it.
8Understand, ye brutish among the people:
and ye fools, when will ye be wise?
9He that planted the ear, shall he not hear?
he that formed the eye, shall he not see?
10He that chastiseth the heathen, shall not he correct?
he that teacheth man knowledge, shall not he know?
11The LORD knoweth the thoughts of man,
that they are vanity.
12Blessed is the man whom thou chastenest, O LORD,
and teachest him out of thy law;
13That thou mayest give him rest from the days of adversity,
until the pit be digged for the wicked.
14For the LORD will not cast off his people,
neither will he forsake his inheritance.
15But judgment shall return unto righteousness:
and all the upright in heart shall follow it.
16Who will rise up for me against the evildoers?
or who will stand up for me against the workers of iniquity?
17Unless the LORD had been my help,
my soul had almost dwelt in silence.
18When I said, My foot slippeth;
thy mercy, O LORD, held me up.
19In the multitude of my thoughts within me
thy comforts delight my soul.
20Shall the throne of iniquity have fellowship with thee,
which frameth mischief by a law?
21They gather themselves together against the soul of the righteous,
and condemn the innocent blood.
22But the LORD is my defence;
and my God is the rock of my refuge.
23And he shall bring upon them their own iniquity,
and shall cut them off in their own wickedness;
yea, the LORD our God shall cut them off.
I love analogies and parables. In this case, verse 18, I said, "My foot slippeth," thy mercy, O Lord, held me. For me the analogy is a (rookie) rock climber scaling, or leading a 5.8 crag. For those of you who are not rock climbers picture the rock climber with rope following him up the cliff, and so he would have a little ways (6-8 feet) to fall before the rope caught him. In any case, as he climbs up...25 feet above the ground, his foot starts to lose its hold.
I know this seems a little dramatic - but for me it's an analogy that works. Addiction is a slippery slope. Especially addiction where full abstinence is not an option. What do I mean by that? Take drinking for example - you can have full abstinence there. Your body and mind can and should be able to survive without any alcohol. What about overeating. You cannot live with full food abstinence. You'd starve. So you have to set-up boundaries. And that's where the slippery slope comes in. Same thing for sex. Sex is an expression of love so we need sex. So, we set-up boundaries...and in those boundaries sometimes I slip. I when I say to God, "I am slipping, I need your strength," he is there for me.
One of those boundaries for me is lust. I constantly slip when it comes to lust. Just when I think, somehow, that I am alone on this. God shows me that I am not - in this case, a guy named Greg Donner. On Greg Donner's website he quotes the Dick Van Dyke show on the boundaries of Marriage, "Marriage, like a lot of other things, has boundaries. And to some guys, those boundaries represent walls, and that makes marriage a prison to them. But to other guys, those boundaries hold everything that's good and fun in life."
This is a great way of looking at boundaries...and another sign that God is with us in this journey and will be there to hold us when our feet slip.
Thanks for letting me share.
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