Exposure numbs us.
Be it temperature, language, or even violence, with repeated exposure our bodies and minds acclimatize. For humans possess an amazing ability to adapt to even the harshest environments.
Accordingly, we can transition something that once provided shock value to background noise. For example, have you ever watched a TV show or movie with one group of people, then watched it later with someone else? Language and images that you glazed over in the first scenario suddenly become apparent and uncomfortable in the new one.
This same effect occurs with truth. We know what the right thing to do is, but culture causes us to veer. The constant exposure we experience numbs us and we lose the revulsion we once held. We start to add caveats and exceptions to what had been fundamental beliefs, especially when what we are charged to do becomes inconvenient. It is as if we are willing to accept God’s wisdom, so long as it does not infringe on our personal desires. Furthermore, we validate these digressions with reassurances that we still aren’t willing to take it as far as others do, and in doing so attempt to maintain the moral high ground. The ‘line’ now sufficiently blurred, we edge further down a path we would have never previously explored. For discernment is lost in constant exposure to sin.
“So watch your step, friends. Make sure there’s no evil unbelief lying around that will trip you up and throw you off course, diverting you from the living God. For as long as it’s still God’s Today, keep each other on your toes so sin doesn’t slow down your reflexes. If we can only keep our grip on the sure thing we started out with, we’re in this with Christ for the long haul.”
The truth of the matter is all these exceptions bring complexity and uncertainy, instead of peace to our lives. They may be the answer we want in the moment, but I can think of plenty of times I chose to follow something other than the prescribed direction and found nothing but frustration and disappointment at the end. Often losing more than sleep.
And we aren’t likely to be sidelined by something massive and hideous, but by something insidious. Notice he doesn’t say ‘opposing God’ but ‘diverting us’ from Him. It is often something that steals our time, energy, or focus and causes us to repeatedly choose to trust ourselves over God. One degree off may seem minuscule at first, but with time it becomes significant.
He also importantly touches on community. The issue is not left at simply knowing what is right, but in maintinaing a comminity that can ensure we remain alert. It is not something we are expected to master in a vaccum, but something we need each other for. Quite contrary to what society would want us to accept about our doing everything ourselves.
Maybe it is time to let go of our misplaced belief that we know better. The sacrifice of convenience now almost always saves us from life altering frustration later. It is and will remain God’s Today, so let us choose to fully embrace the method he has laid out for us.