Be Careful of the Small Slips
By Megan Berthold

I took a fall recently. Well, a stumble really.  I’m not certain of all the technicalities between falls and stumbles, but it was a small slip of the feet.  The irony was that our family had just hiked almost three miles up the side of a mountain, around “cliffy” edges, and then back down around rocks and slippery stones - all safe and sound.  Thankfully, it wasn’t until I was near the safety of the trailhead that I had my slip.

My slip on the safe ground got me thinking.  It seems in life that it can be easy to pass the “big tests”, but it’s often times the little ones that can entangle us.  It’s amazing that when you’re hiking, even near dangerous edges, there oftern aren’t guardrails.  There aren’t park rangers at the rough turns rationing out warnings.  Lots of times there aren’t even signs!  And it’s not necessary because it’s overwhelmingly apparent - there is danger around you. Carefulness, awareness and safety are demanded.

In our spiritual lives, it’s no different.  We don’t need the “ warning signs” around the big issues.  We can often handle the "biggie" issues of fornication, drinking, regular attendance at Worship, using the Lord’s name in vain, etc.  But just as I’m feeling confident in hiking through the weighty matters of life, the phone rings and gossip is flowing from my lips, or my child disobeys me and my anger flares, or I’m praised for a job completed well and my heart starts harboring pride, or my spouse and I have words and all of the sudden submission to my husband is out the door.  Look at all the slipping!  And it wasn’t falling over the cliff on adultery, or stealing, or lying; it was slipping on the "little" things, the things not many people see.

This isn’t new by the way.  Look at Lot’s wife (Genesis 19:26).  Somehow she had lived in Sodom and actually made it out alive; she truly made it to the safe ground.  But then she turned.  One little look cost it all.  Then of course there’s Uzzah (2 Samuel 6:3-8).  I feel for Uzzah.  He didn’t make the cart, he was just guiding it; but he touched it.  God couldn’t have made that rule any plainer, don’t touch the ark.  There’s no ambiguity on that point; no way to wonder how God really felt about that one.  "No touchy", as we say in our house.   And then there is Moses, who was quite the man really.  He stood up to Pharaoh and the Egyptians, and to the Israelites too actually, on their many occasions of back peddling.  He parted the Red Sea, he saw a burning bush, he received the Ten Commandments, the list just goes on and on.  And in Numbers 20:7 the Lord tells him to speak to the rock to bring forth water.  So he and Aaron jaunt on down to the assembly of the people before the rock, and he hits the rock.  Hits it!  Not just once mind you, he strikes that rock twice.  When I look at Moses I can really feel better about myself (oops, there is the pride again), but really, here is a man who struck his staff over the Red Sea, which is no creek by the way, and it parts.  But he can’t listen and obey when God told him to speak to the rock to bring forth water.

Ok, so what is the take home?  We need to make sure we’re getting it right on the “little” things, just like we do on the big ones.  What does it really matter if I’m in my pew Sunday at 9am, 5pm, and Wednesday at 7:30, if I’m not truly living as a vessel of Christ in my words, in my example, and in my heart?

We need to ensure that what we perceive as “safe ground” really is secure.