Slippery When Wet

My family and I moved house recently. It was a gradual move, i.e. we got the keys to the new flat on a Monday and finished moving the following Sunday. This meant we filled and emptied our little Toyota Yaris (Car Of The Year in 2000, no less!) around twenty times that week to move the contents of cupboards, drawers, shelves, etc. to the new flat. I thought that would be a less stressful way to move house. And it was... to some extent.

The stressful part was going down metal stairs outside our old flat, at night (when the kids were asleep), carrying two or three Ikea bags full of clothes, pots and a random set of Tintin DVDs I bought in 2012. However, I never slipped once during the whole move, no matter what I was carrying. By the grace of God!

I have slipped on those stairs before, though. Twice, in fact. The first time was on a bright, sunny day, on my way to work, laptop bag on my back. The second was on a cold and wet day, on my way to work, laptop bag on my back.

Remembering how I slipped back then, and not now, got me wondering: why would I slip in the daytime, with less stress or pressure, and not on a rainy night carrying loads of stuff down the same stairs? And I realised it's probably to do with my own arrogance...

When I went down the stairs in the darkness, two things happened: 1) I went slower, more carefully; 2) I became more dependent on whatever resources I had to go down stairs in the dark. When I went down the same stairs in the daylight, I went a bit quicker and less carefully. And I slipped.

I think the same applies to our walk with Jesus. We have this immense privilege to know the Way, the Truth and the Life: Jesus Christ. So we need to remember that knowing Him does not give us a monopoly on truth and love. It also does not make us immune to temptation and sin. Paul writes this to the Corinthian church:

"These things happened to them as examples and were written down as warnings for us, on whom the culmination of the ages has come. So, if you think are standing firm, be careful that you don't fall!" (1 Corinthians 10:11-12 - NIVUK)

Paul is writing about the Israelites and how they, God's Chosen Nation, turned away from Him in the wilderness (Exodus). When we become arrogant about following Jesus, thinking we have Him and the whole world sussed out, we've stopped following Jesus. We go quicker, less careful in the way we live our lives. There's only one way to walk with Jesus, and that is humbly (Micah 6:8); recognising His sovereignty, my lowly position, and using every tool He gives to follow Him more closely.

May God be your strength. May He make your feet like the feet of a deer. May He enable you to tread on the heights... or slippery steps on a rainy day (Habakkuk 3:19).

Selah