Don't Go There

 

....unclean to you.

        Leviticus 11. 4

Not the words we want to hear.

Yet perhaps the ones

    we need to hear,

despite all our excuses:

     No one will know.

     Everyone is doing it.

     It won't hurt me,

         nor anyone else.

And our adversary's favorite

          "It won't matter."

But yet, unclean to you

    or detestable to you 

is repeated 42 times 

  in the 47 verses of chapter 11.

Not all things are helpful,

  some will trip us up,

  some will enslave.

Be aware of ambushes.

When God tells us,

           "Don't go there,"

     stop in the name of love.

Our lives depend on it.

And so does our witness.

Trusting God builds strength

to resist the shiny distractions

  and avoid crater-size potholes.

O LORD,

We are so blind to the 

   consequences of downright sin.

We call our rebelliousness 

   a lot of things,

like mistakes, misunderstandings,

   accidents, or I-didn't-mean-to's.

What is unclean to us

   -- the next wrong thing--

impacts not just us,

but generations after us

and our witness among others.

LORD, grant to us Your strength

   to walk with You

through this day,

       our eyes on You.

That which is good and gracious

 and honorable in Your sight

      reverberates forever.