Warnings: Unwanted, But Necessary

How do you react when you receive a warning? One way is to continue doing what you’re doing, reasoning, “Well, that doesn’t apply to me.” Another way – especially when it comes to dire weather predictions – is to think, “Yeah, right. That’s what they said last time, and nothing happened. That’s why they predict 80% chance of snow. Because that means 20% chance that it won’t snow, so they’re right either way.” 

 

Then there’s the more stubborn approach to being warned: “Hey, you’re not the boss of me! You can’t tell me what to do!” We might actually say this, or at least think it, determined to disregard what we’ve been told to do.

 

There’s the story of the motorist in an unfamiliar part of the country who drove past a person holding a sign that said, “The End is Near!” The driver smugly looked at the person, glanced at the warning, and proceeded, thinking, “Just another of those religious nuts!” Sadly, he didn’t realize until too late that the bridge on the road ahead was out.

 

Most of us don’t like warnings, whatever they happen to be. Because we like our freedom, our autonomy. But even though they’re not wanted, warnings are usually necessary – and often given with our best interests in mind.

 

While the COVID pandemic was in full force, we received lots of warnings: “Wear a mask.” “Get the vaccine.” “Wear two masks.” “Get the boosters.” “Social distance.” “Stay home.” Perhaps the most literal warning was, “Avoid people like the plague.”

 

At first, most of us readily complied, glad to help in “flattening the curve.” What’s a couple weeks of sacrifice, temporarily accepting the “new normal,” right? But when the weeks dragged into a month, then months, a year and more, those dire warnings grew old and tiresome. Some of us probably thought, “Okay, I heeded your warnings. Where did that get us?”

 

Much of the time, warnings we receive are for our good. The parent warns the child, “Hold my hand in the parking lot. Cars are coming,” or, “Don’t run into the street without stopping and looking both ways.” Can you remember your mom or dad warning, “Don’t touch the stove”? They didn’t say that to restrict our freedom – they were concerned about our safety.

 

As we read through the Bible, we find it filled with warnings. The first warning God ever gave is recorded in Genesis 2:16, when He told Adam and Eve, “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die.”

 

That seemed simple enough. Any tree in the garden of Eden was available to them, except for one. Sadly, for all of humankind – like the toddler told not to touch the hot stove but does it anyway – they decided to sample the forbidden fruit. Until then the first couple had not known about evil, but suddenly they did. The result was a divine eviction notice, along a succession of tragic consequences that continues to this day.

 

We could regard the Ten Commandments not only as rules given by God for us to follow, but also as warnings – guidelines for living happy, fulfilling lives. They begin with one that all of us, in one way or another, have violated: “You shall have no other gods before Me” (Exodus 20:3). We might not have physical idols displayed prominently in our homes or workplaces, but at times we all have “worshipped” other gods, whether they be spouse, children, the pursuit of success, possessions, even our favorite sports teams. (I know, I might have just quit preaching and started meddling.)

 

Why is this a warning? Not just because God doesn’t want to share His glory and adoration with anyone or anything else. It’s also because every other “god,” at its best, is flawed and certain to fail us.

 

The fourth commandment, “Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy” (Exodus 20:8), was given not only to commemorate on a weekly basis God’s work of creation and that He rested on the seventh day. It's also because better than anyone, He knows how much we, with our limited physical and mental capacities, also need rest and times to become refreshed. Stress, exhaustion and illness are common byproducts of people refusing to hit the “pause” button in their everyday schedules.

 

One of my favorite books in the Bible, Proverbs, is filled with warnings from our Creator. For instance, Proverbs 21:23 offers this advice: “He who guards his mouth and his tongue keeps himself from calamity.” Have you ever said something, whether in anger or out of impulse, that you immediately regretted, only to realize the damage had already been done?

 

Speaking of anger, we’ve all experienced the impact of that destructive emotion. One way to avoid falling prey to it, either as perpetrator or victim, is not to hang around angry people. As Proverbs 22:24-25 warns, “Do not make friends with a hot-tempered man, do not associate with one easily angered, or you may learn his ways and get yourself ensnared.”

This is one of the things I value from reading God’s Word, which I regard as His “owner’s manual.” He made us, He knows who we are – our frailties, faults and flaws – and has graciously provided us with a comprehensive guidebook for successful living. We ignore it to our peril. Proceed at your own risk. Consider yourself warned! 

Learning to Go Faster By Going Slower

Someone has said a definition of an athletic contest, whether a football, soccer or basketball game, is thousands of spectators in desperate need of exercise watching skilled athletes in desperate need of rest.

That sums it up well, especially for couch potatoes in comfortable couches and chairs, snacks and drinks close by – cheering for favorite teams and grumbling if they fail to meet expectations. Never mind all the effort expended by players leading up to the game; all that matters is whether they win or lose.  

But for many of us, overwhelmed by our hectic lifestyles, the scenario shifts dramatically when it’s not game day. Then we’re the ones running to the point of exhaustion, disregarding the need to take a breath and get some rest. We try to defy physics by proving we can be in several places at one time. Overuse of technology has turned frenetic “multi-tasking” into a hideous art form. 

However, the problem of “rush, rush, and more rush” is hardly new. And not unique to American society. Mahatma Gandhi, the revered human rights activist and leader of India’s non-violent independence movement in the early 1900s, said, “There is more to life than merely increasing the speed.” He said that long before anyone knew anything about smartphones, email, texting, Siri and Alexa! 

Author and contemplative David Steindl-Rast offered another global perspective about humankind’s fascination with busyness: “The Chinese character or pictograph for ‘busy’ is composed of two characters: ‘Heart’ and ‘Killing.’” How’s that for a graphic image?

Any lumberjack worth his splinters knows a key to efficient tree cutting is pausing at times to make certain the axe is always sharp. Chopping fast with a dull blade is counterproductive. Some of us, enamored with jam-packed, stress-filled schedules, have little time to pause to “sharpen our blade.” Before we can appreciate one event or achievement, we’re sprinting off to the next one. You know the adage about taking time to smell the flowers? We’re moving so fast, we don’t even notice any flowers to sniff.

This is one reason God places emphasis on rest, including the designation of a sabbath day. Following the Creation account in Genesis 1, we read in Genesis 2:2, “By the seventh day God had finished the work he had been doing, so on the seventh day he rested from all his work. And God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it he rested from all the work of creating that he had done.”

Imagine: After creating the entire universe, including the world in which we live and everything in it, God Himself called a timeout. Being all-powerful, it wasn’t because He was tired. But it was a good time for smelling the flowers He had made, enjoying a sunrise and sunset, and listening to His creatures flying and frolicking everywhere. Why exert so much effort and creativity if you can’t enjoy it?

The Lord found it so refreshing, He decided to include rest-taking as one of His commandments: “Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God…” (Exodus 20:8-10).

For some, the Ten Commandments are restrictive, archaic rules established by a spoilsport God who doesn’t want us to have any fun. Nothing could be further from the truth. Jesus offered some clarification when legalistic religious leaders challenged His disciples’ activities in the Sabbath day. He said, “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath” (Mark 2:27). In other words, the Lord established a day for rest as a gift, not an imposition. 

Somehow, many of us in our society have lost the appreciation for rest, for healthful relaxing that’s not immersed in just another form of non-stop activity. That’s probably why we repeatedly find admonitions in the Scriptures to “be still” and “rest.” As Isaiah 58:13-14 tells us, “If you call the Sabbath a delight…then you shall take delight in the Lord, and I will make you ride upon the heights of the earth.”

The writer of Ecclesiastes, who allowed himself to experience every human pleasure imaginable, including material abundance, understood the pointlessness of endless human endeavor: “Better is one handful of tranquility than two handfuls with toil and chasing after wind” (Ecclesiastes 4:6).

And King David, who had plenty of demands to occupy his days and nights, also learned the virtues of peace and rest. “Find rest, O my soul, in God alone, my hope comes from him. He alone is my rock and my salvation; he is my fortress, I will not be shaken” (Psalm 62:5-6). 

Do you sometimes find yourself “weary and heavy-laden,” as the old hymn expresses it? Perhaps even right now? Maybe consciously, deliberately choosing to take time to rest, rather than adding one more item to your already overflowing to-do list, is what you need. 

The place where you find that rest, to make a much-needed “pit stop” in the midst of your race, is up to you. But make sure not to leave God out of the process. “Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for him” (Psalm 37:7). “Be still, and know that I am God” (Psalm 46:10). Because after all, Father knows best.