“Woe to the world for temptations to sin! For it is necessary that temptations come, but woe to the one by whom the temptation comes! And if your hand or your foot causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life crippled or lame than with two hands or two feet to be thrown into the eternal fire. And if your eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life with one eye than with two eyes to be thrown into the hell of fire.” Matthew 18:7-9 ESV
In terms of temptation, we live in a world of bright lights. The colors are vivid and pulsing and now, even retinal. Given their brightness, one would think it would be easy to avoid them. The problem, however, isn’t the lights. The problem is that we are moths. We randomly dart about the lights mesmerized by the colors and the sensations. We circle closer and closer and our caution is lost as we slowly become blind to everything beyond the lights. Even in the painful brilliance we find ourselves unable to look away. Eventually our fragile tiered wings literally catch fire. Continue reading
Failure is one of those topics that we don’t like to talk about. We would never consider planning for it, whether or not we believe the adage “If you fail to plan, plan to fail.” But failure is part of the human ethos, and understanding how and why we fail is important if we are to learn how not to fail. And how much more should we understand what can bring about the ultimate failure – the failure of a human life?