Like a Band-Aid
Patience is a virtue and slower is usually more steady. But sometimes, the worst thing you can do is to go slow. I learned that the hard way.I used to love watching motocross on TV and the motorcycle stunts and jumps they showed on ABC’s Wide World of Sports when I was a kid. My favorite was Evil Knievel. I dreamed of doing jumps like his.During spring break one year (I was 7 or 8), I spent the week at my Uncle Ralph’s farm. I brought my bike, but found that there were not too many places to ride it. But I did see what appeared to be a perfect bike jump. It was a concrete retaining wall, about four feet high, that held up a slope on one side of the barn. “The perfect spot to jump my bike!” I thought. But for this first attempt, I figured I’d better take it slow. I didn’t want to get hurt.You can imagine what happened as I slowly approached that four foot drop-off and my front wheel went down. As soon as I started to go over, I thought, “How stupid, you have to do this fast!” I felt so foolish in the middle of the fall, that I started laughing while I was going over…I just felt so stupid.That wasn’t my last bike jump, but it was my last slow one. There are some things that are best done quickly: jumping a bike, removing a band-aid, getting used to cold water. Sometimes it’s just better to go after it and do it fast.That’s how the Bible tells us to deal with sin. Lingering around temptation never works. Trying to slowly back off a habit leads to stronger addiction. Dealing with sin in our lives has to be like a band-aid. There’s a little pain initially, but removing the temptation quickly, and replacing the activity immediately is the only way.If you are having sex with your girlfriend, you’ve got to stop altogether, cold turkey. You might even need to break off the relationship for a while (after all, you started on the wrong foot anyway). If you’ve been getting drunk, you’ve got to stop drinking altogether. Been getting high? Change your hang-outs and the people you are hanging with. Gossiping? Probably need to change your friends. It’s what is called in the Biblical counseling world, radical amputation, a concept we get from Jesus, “If your hand or your foot causes you to sin, cut it off…” (Matthew 18:8 ESV).Yes, sometimes it’s better to go slow. But sometimes it’s not. When it comes to habitual sin, there’s too much at stake. Make the change, and do it quickly!