What Are You Avoiding?

A 19-year-old driver successfully avoided running over a squirrel. Whew! But there are consequences to avoiding things. Instead of hitting the squirrel, she drove into the living room of a cottage that bordered the street.

Fortunately, the people inside were uninjured. But the cottage, a home built in 1650 by Abraham Lincoln’s ancestor, Samuel Lincoln, did not fare so well. I hope that squirrel knows how fortunate he is.

It’s usually not a good idea to avoid things.

I know many men who are crashing their marriages and doing major damage to their kids because they avoid conversations about uncomfortable things.  Many people have train-wrecked their careers because they avoid work or problems at work. My wife often says, “If they worked as hard at getting the job done as they do at avoiding it, they’d be the best employees!”

Then there are those who will avoid blame for anything, at all costs. If they ever do apologize, they still avoid responsibility for their actions and the fake apology always begins with, “If I offended you…”

Speaking of responsibility…that’s another thing we love to avoid. Wouldn’t it be better if someone else were to answer for this, and not me?

Avoiding things is a human weakness that is illustrated throughout Scripture, beginning with Adam avoiding responsibility for the first sin in the garden, and his oldest son avoiding responsibility for murdering his brother. Most of the Biblical stories of avoidance led to disastrous outcomes, like Jonah being swallowed by a whale. And that’s the case in our lives today too.

What have you been avoiding? A conversation that needs to happen? A person? A genuine apology? An issue at work? A repair on your house or with your car? A financial issue that you’ve been ignoring?

It won’t get better or easier with time. What was once a little squirrel may become a destructive crash. It’s time to face it and get to a resolution.

“The wicked flee when no one pursues, but the righteous are bold as a lion” (Proverbs 28:1 ESV).