My wife and I just finished a game of Upwords (3-D Scrabble). There are certain letters like the Q, X, and J that one needs to play as soon as possible. I had the J. An opportunity arose to change “fail” to “jail.” In haste I played an N and made “nail.” I missed my one and only opportunity to shed my J. It cost me the game. When we finished I had to subtract five points because I still had it.
Haste. How many endeavors in life have been lost because of haste? How many times would we have done much better if we had only paused long enough to think things through? Haste really does make waste. It isn’t an old maxim without cause. Eve would have done so much better if she had only thought through what the snake was saying. Then there was David who thought it through and still made an awful mistake. His plot killed one of his mighty men. Usually, and I emphasize usually, we make wiser decisions if we just pause before we leap into something.
In Mark chapter one, we have a picture of Jesus calling Andrew and Peter and James and John to leave their fishing boats and follow Him. If all we had was the Gospel of Mark we would have thought them to be hasty to leave their livelihood. They had families. When we read the other Gospels we realize even though the account is in Mark chapter one this event was a year into Jesus’ ministry and they had seen and heard much to aid them in their decision.
If you haven’t yet made Jesus your savior, don’t leap, think then leap. It will be the wisest decision of your entire eternal life.
Written by Roger Bothwell on May 20, 2014
Spring of Life, PO Box 124, St. Helena, CA 94574
Rogerbothwell.org