Absent-mindedness
December 11, 2019
I went to Kroger the other day, and is my (bad) habit, I took the credit card that I planned to use out of my wallet so I wouldn’t have to carry my whole wallet around the store. I also picked up some trash that was on the floor of my car to throw out on the way into the store. I did my food shopping and proceeded to the check out. After my was bagged, I reached into my pocket for my credit card and came out with only lint. I frantically slapped my other pockets. Nothing! It was then that I realized what happened. I had tossed my credit card with the other garbage from my car! I had to run out to the car to get another credit card, (feeling the weight of the angry scowls of the people on line behind me). I ran back in and paid, and then prayed that the credit card was still in the garbage. The can had almost nothing in it. I didn’t know if that was good or bad. If they had just replaced the bag, I would have had to ask to where the dumpster was and who knows what I might have had to climb through to get my credit card back. I have to quote the Shawshank Redemption here. “Andy Dufresne, who crawled through 500 yards of unimaginable filth to freedom!”
Thankfully, the garbage bag had not been changed. I was able to retrieve my credit card, suffering only minor embarrassment from the stares of a few people who noticed. But the whole incident got me to thinking about how many things we do without ever even thinking or realizing that we do them. How many times have you walked into a room and forgotten why you went in there? Or you weren’t paying attention in a store and you bumped right into someone. It happens all the time, usually without great consequence.
But what if we are walking through life spiritually absent-minded? That’s a much bigger deal. We’ve been studying 1 Peter in Sunday School in our church lately. Three times in the letter Peter warned his readers to be sober-minded and alert. Then in the last chapter of the letter, after his third warning, he added that “your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.” (1 Peter 5:9). There are many people who go through life spiritually unaware. They don’t give much thought to whether God exists, who Jesus is, why He lived and died, or whether He rose from the dead. It’s just not important to them. They are blissfully unaware, and yet their eternity hangs on their answers to these questions. Satan loves blissfully unaware people. They are on the road to damnation and they don’t even know it.
There are other people who call themselves Christians, who genuinely seem to care about these questions. They have made professions of faith, and still somehow Satan is able to cause them to fall into sin. We’ve all read stories about Christians who yield to the temptation of sexual sin, or greed, or other sins. Satan loves to cause a believer to stumble. That’s why the warning in 1 Peter to be alert against the wiles of the devil is so severe. By the time Peter wrote that letter, Christians were being thrown to the lions in the Roman colosseum. Most people in his time had seen what lions do to people. They would not have missed the gory image. Peter wanted his readers to know that if we are not aware, Satan will do to our souls what lions will do to our bodies.
There’s a line from the movie, “The Usual Suspects” that I have always remembered. Kevin Spacey’s character says, “The greatest trick the devil ever pulled was convincing people he doesn’t exist.” If we, or people we know, go through life either convinced that Satan doesn’t exist, or absent-mindedly assuming that he doesn’t, the consequences will be eternal. He will have succeeded in devouring our souls as a lion would devour our bodies. On the other hand, if we trust Jesus for our salvation, the Holy Spirit who God gives to us will give us the power to resist the devil. Now is not the time for spiritual slumber. There is a spiritual battle raging for our souls every day. Satan does not rest. He’s working right now, this very second, to hinder people from becoming Christians, and to tempt Christians to ruin their lives through sin. May the Christmas season be a time when we are concerned for the souls of the absent-minded and unaware. As you gather with family and friends this Christmas, be aware! Satan is on the prowl, looking to devour them, and you! It’s one thing to absent-mindedly throw away our credit card. It’s another thing to absent-mindedly allow Satan to have our souls!
