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Saturday, February 12, 2005
When I was younger I had a small addiction: Baseball cards.
It all started with a couple of boxes I found in my cousin Jody's attic...he didn't care about them and gave me about 5 shoeboxes full of "old" baseball cards. This was 1975.
So, I went through the cards and found most of my favorite players who played major league baseball from 1965 through 1973. They were all in "mint" condition, too. Rod Carew. Johnny Bench. Nolan Ryan. Pete Rose. Frank & Brooks Robinson. Jim Palmer. Hank Aaron. Willie McCovey. It was a glorious few years in baseball, I had some really great cards.
I looked them up in a price guide. There were some rare cards in that box. There were some rookie cards in that box. There were some complete sets of some rare years. I had racked up quite a find in my cousin's attic...to the tune of about $2,500 bucks worth.
I took magnificent care of those cards, covering the cards in specially designed sheets of plastic...and the more rare and valuable cards in special waterproof cases. There were special boxes in which you could put complete sets in numerical order. I kept them on the top shelf of my closet.
I made trades to upgrade the collection. I went to shows and purchased cards. It was an enjoyable hobby.
And the beauty of it was that new cards came out each baseball season that could be purchased for about 10 cents for a pack of 15 cards and you could try to get all the new cards.
Well, one Saturday morning I rode with my dad on a trip to a neighborhood hardware store (there used to be such things), and when I walked in I noticed that they had just opened a box of brand new 1977 Topps baseball cards for the upcoming baseball season.
I don't know if I've ever wanted anything more. While my dad was looking for some specific lawnmower part I was lusting after the 10 cent packs. For a buck I could get a good start on the season, too. I asked him for a dollar. He told me my hobbies were my responsibility and he'd lend me a buck if I had a dollar at home. I didn't. No loan, no dice, no cards today then. He went back to searching for his lawnmower part.
I was tempted big time.
And that Jiminy Cricket voice in my head was telling me not to take the cards.
The next thing I know, I'm putting packs of cards into my pocket. I really wanted those cards. I knew taking them without paying for them was wrong...and even had the Jiminy Cricket voice reminding me. But I really wanted those cards and was taking them...that's just how it was.
My dad found the part, and when we left the store. He immediately went outside to work on the mower, and I immediately went upstairs to get a start on the 1977 collection. Door locked, business to take care of.
My dad came upstairs to get me to do my part of the yardwork and knocked on the door. I'm sure he heard packages opening and I'm sure I was more than suspicious. I shoved them under the bed, and he came in and searched...found the stolen cards, and we went back up to the hardware store for a full confession and offer of restitution. Not in payment, but I had to work it off by sweeping and taking out some trash and stuff like that for a couple of hours.
But I remember vividly the nature of temptation...and can still feel it's draw. It might not be over baseball cards these days. It could be over what I choose to let my mind dwell on, or a desire for a certain kind of car, or better stuff/things, or to overeat, or to tell that story because it's funny instead of realizing it's gossip, or whatever.
Human nature is a powerful beast. No matter how hard that Jiminy Cricket voice tries to remind us what's right.
And that's why Jesus told us to pray that we wouldn't be "lead" into temptation. Isn't that a peculiar choice of words? Being "lead" into temptation? What we're admitting is that Jesus is our "guide" through life, leading us on the steps of our journey...and whenever we wind up in various trials and temptations, we have a chance that we'll fail. So, we're asking God to lead us on different paths, and to lean on Him to be our guide when we're tempted. Our human nature is just too hard to overcome on our own. We'll steal whatever "baseball cards" are...whatever that chink in our armor is, we'll fall if left to our own devices.
We're also to ask to be delivered from evil. Evil can pop up all around us when we're on our journey. When it does, we're to trust our Guide to provide deliverance from it. A way out. A way to avoid it.
So, in this section, we learn that we need a guide to keep us from ourselves as well as those external things that can lead us to sin.
The remainder of verse 13 is omitted from the earliest Greek manuscripts, so I don't really want to offer any "official" teaching comment on it...but there's certainly a reality that if God were to answer all the lines of the Lord's Prayer, that God's kingdom would be glorified...that He's our King, we are His subjects, He is powerful, and He should be glorified forever...and He will be. That's all over Scripture, even if the last part of 13 was added by scribes later...we don't need it to know those things.
Anyway, today, think through what the "chinks" in your "armor" are, and how many of them there are. How do you respond to them when they arise? What, based on what you learned today, are some practical steps to take when they pop up?
Brent 5:07 AM
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