Good Sense

"You made me; you created me.  Now give me the sense to follow your commands." Psalm 119:73

My dad was meticulous in giving me instructions regarding gun safety.  I, however, wasn't quite as meticulous in putting those instructions into practice.  As a kid, when dad and I were on a rabbit hunt, I neglected to follow the rule regarding keeping your finger away from the trigger until shooting time.  I tripped over some railroad tracks, reached out to catch myself with the safety off and my finger on the trigger.  The barrel was so close to my head when the gun went off, that all I could hear for the next several minutes was ringing.  Thankfully, my foolish failure to follow the instructions didn't cost me or my dad our lives, but it sure was a powerful lesson.

The Psalmist here points out something so obvious we simply say, "Duh."  However, he still needed to say it, because he and we needed to hear it.  God made us.  Life was his idea.  His instructions and commands come to us not as suggestions from the peanut gallery.  They come to us as loving survival directions in a world gone wild.  To ignore them is to damage ourselves and those around us ... senseless.

There's no way to know how many of us are standing on the edge of a cliff about to step off into stupidity.  The cliff may be large.  It may be small.  Regardless, it's avoidable.  Our Creator has spoken.  There are heaps of pain and regret that do not need to be dumped at our doorstep.  Let's stay close to the constant guide that is the commands of God.

Grace and Peace,

Tom

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