I kept on..... even though I knew....

I was reading a book [The Sickness by Steve Fuller] when I came upon a line that floored me! The profoundness of its picture of us was overwhelming. It's not always our picture, but too often it is! The line that caused my eyes to pause its look and to reread again the sadness of the truth I'd just read was this, "I kept flirting even though I knew it was wrong. Even though I knew it was dangerous. Even though I knew there could be no happy ending."

WOE!

He kept flirting..... even though he knew it was wrong.... even though he knew it was dangerous.... even though he knew there could be no happy ending!

He kept on.... even though he knew.... even though he knew.... even though he knew!

He knew! But he kept on!

He kept on. She kept on. We keep on. They keep on. Even when we know! Even when we know!

How apt are you to keep _____________ [whatever your blank was/is]... even though you know.... even though you know.... even though you know????

We know better... but we keep on?

How much sense does that make?

We keep flirting with the forbidden. We keep eating when know we shouldn't. We keep looking at things we ought not. We keep saying when we know we should stop. We keep drinking to the point of intoxicated influence. We keep playing with the bait that tempts.  Even though we KNOW that it's stupid and it's heading us toward trouble. We keep on. We refuse to quit. We're enjoying this game. We want to do what we're doing even though we know  the danger that lurks in the direction we're heading.

What is our continual perpetuation toward danger "even though we know"?

When we know, why do we keep on going???

Another line in this book as the progression toward disaster moves forward says, "Nothing blatantly immoral happened that afternoon, but the wheels were in motion, and it was only a matter of time before we would cross lines that could never be uncrossed. Two roads diverged in a wood, indeed. And I - I was about to follow a dangerous path."

When KNOWING the path that you're following leads only to danger.... what is our stupidity to keep on going toward it?

The wheels are in motion... and it's only a matter of time before we cross that line!!!!!!!!!

What?

And we still fail to stop?

What?

What is that?????

And why?

Why so easily?

The book continues, "It was a simple concept, and I told anyone who would listen. We don't choose to cheat the night we walk into someone's bedroom. We already made that choice the first time we inappropriately flirted with someone we knew was trouble, or had too many drinks with an attractive coworker, or lied about an innocent dinner with an ex-girlfriend. In thirty-three years, I had never dropped naked on top of a woman. A hundred little choices lead us to their door, and a hundred more push us throught that threshold. Thousands of little choices that seal our fate, and I had already taken a dozen steps down the road leading to Leslie Steel's embrace."

Thousands of little choices seal our fate. What makes us to continue taking step after step when we know where the steps we are taking will land us? Why make such small choices, when we know inside they're not good choices to make?

When we're walking that direction, why do we pretend to ourselves that it won't take us there?

Again, it's the verse that I've quoted so many times on this site that warns us from these very things. It's found in Proverbs 27:12, "The prudent [the wise] SEE DANGER and take refuge, but the simple [the foolish] keep going and suffer for it."

When the wise man sees danger, he runs for a refuge. But when a foolish man does, he just keeps on going in the direction he's heading... the evil catching him soon enough and causing him havoc.

Lamentations 1:9 says, "she did NOT consider her furture. Her fall was astounding."

The KJV words it this way, "she remembereth not her last end..."

WOE! Why do we often fail to learn from our last time?

The AMP, "she did not [seriously and earnestly] consider her final end. Therefore she has come down [from throne to slavery] singularly and astonishingly;"

The NLT, "She defiled herself with immorality and gave no thought to her future. Now she lies in the gutter with no one to lift her out."

The CEV, "Her sins had made her filthy, but she wasn't worried about what could happen."

The MSG, "She played fast and loose with life, she never considered tomorrow, and now she crashed royally, with no one to hold her hand."

When we know (because we do!)... why don't we consider?

Why don't we run to our Refuge?

Why do we keep on going.... KNOWING that in time it will cause us to suffer?

We know that everything costs! Everything costs! Doing right costs. But doing wrong costs a whole lot more! Never fool yourself, there's always a price to pay.

And seldom do we suffer alone (I'd like to really suggest NEVER!), usuallly we drag a whole lot of undeserved loved ones along with us. It's a cost for them too, though we're the one that selfishly did something so stupid.

Are you worried about what could happen?

Are you considering your tomorrow?

That funny feeling inside (it's called conviction), God put it there to convince you to turn around while you still can.

Be the prudent man. Seek refuge. Not the simple man who will soon suffer.