Have you ever done something really dumb? Did you promise yourself or others that you'd never do THAT again? And did you later DO IT AGAIN? Yeah. Me too. What makes us do that?

I don't know how many times I've done that. And it isn't always the same thing either. There are many things I've said or done that were just plain silly, dumb, unhealthy, unwise, dangerous, sinful, or embarrassing. I guess I could fill a page with adjectives describing dumb deeds I done over and over.

People are just habitually self-destructive. No matter how hard we try, we just can't stay on the straight-and-narrow line we want to walk. Just think about our eating habits a minute or two.

I'll use myself as an example. I'm a junk food junkie. You turn me loose in a convenience store and I'll spend my whole allowance on Cokes and peanuts. The greasier and saltier the food, the more I like it.

Yet I pride myself on eating healthy. I know what foods contain which nutrients. I know the foods that have too much fat, too much sugar, no nutritional value, and no value at all. I know how to select high-octane complex carbohydrates and I know those rich in vitamins and minerals. I even know when I'm taking on fuel that creates nothing but flatulence. I can talk the talk. I just can't seem to walk the walk. That's scary.

But at least I know when I'm eating the wrong stuff. I just don't fully understand why unless it's just because it tastes so gooood! I know it's isn't good for me, but I eat it anyway. Now that's dumb.

It's easy for us to excuse ourselves. Comedian Flip Wilson used to say, "The devil made me do it." Now isn't that comforting? We have no higher authority than Flip Wilson assuring us that it isn't our fault when we loose our self-control.

If I'm not careful, I can go along with the devil. So I'm careful. I did some Bible study and found that I'm in good company. Many people throughout history indulged in bad habits. Famous people. Righteous people.

Did you know, for example, that the Apostle Paul had the same problem back in the first century? Listen to this, in Romans 7:15-17 TLB.

Paul says: "I don't understand myself at all, for I really want to do what is right, but I can't. I do what I don't want to do-what I hate. I know perfectly well that what I am doing is wrong, and my bad conscience proves that I agree with these laws I am breaking. But I can't help myself, because I'm no longer doing it. It is sin inside me that is stronger than I am that makes me do these evil things.

"I know I am rotten through and through so far as my old sinful nature is concerned. No matter which way I turn I can't make myself do right. I want to but I can't. When I want to do good, I don't; and when I try not to do wrong, I do it anyway. Now if I am doing what I don't want to, it is plain where the trouble is: sin still has me in its evil grasp.

"It seems to be a fact of life that when I want to do what is right, I inevitably do what is wrong. I love to do God's will so far as my new nature is concerned; but there is something else deep within me, in my lower nature, that is at war with my mind and wins the fight and makes me a slave to the sin that is still within me. In my mind I want to be God's willing servant but instead I find myself still enslaved to sin.

"So you see how it is: my new life tells me to do right, but the old nature that is still inside me loves to sin. Oh, what a terrible predicament I'm in! Who will free me from my slavery to this deadly lower nature? Thank God! It has been done by Jesus Christ our Lord. He has set me free."

We need to go back a few verses in Paul's letter to the Romans to put our continuing temptation in proper perspective. Paul explains it this way, in Romans 6:15-18.

"Does this mean that now we can go ahead and sin and not worry about it? (For our salvation does not depend on keeping the law, but on receiving God's grace!) Of course not!

"Don't you realize that you can choose your own master? You can choose sin (with death) or else obedience (with acquittal). The one to whom you offer yourself--he will take you and be your master and you will be his slave. Thank God that though you once chose to be slaves of sin, now you have obeyed with all your heart the teaching to which God has committed you. And now you are free from your old master, sin; and you have become slaves to your new master, righteousness."

The important message from Paul is that we must chose. Living an obedient life is a choice.

HLG

Copyright 2001, Harvey L. Gardner