Short cuts to hell
Zimbabwe scares me. (Mugabe saying he would go to war rather than let the MDC win!)
Malema (ANC youth league) really worries me (… [prepared to] kill for Zuma)
Well, how glibly we use the phrase “it was Hell” … not really referring to the eternal version of course, but to a tiny foretaste of a possible eternity. You know, generally when these moments happen, it’s often because someone’s taken a short cut: a short cut to a momentary personal “hell”.
Consider the Old Testament Jews; countless times they presumed to know better than God and took short-cuts. I mean, good grief, they made idols while their leader was in a close encounter of the third kind (excuse the pun). And even with Jesus, they presumed to know better and went and hung him on a cross! Yet all the while God had given them the revealing law, and so that they could avoid the hells of taking short cuts.
What about Mugabe: Grab the land – short cut to hell. Rig the election – short cut to hell. And Malema? “If need be, we’ll kill to attain our objective.” Reason flown out the window, common sense flushed down the toilet, immaturity and childlike thinking.
So you say, I’m not like Mugabe, I’m not politically immature like some of our emerging leaders, that doesn’t really apply to me! Really?
Look at today; get rich quick, climb over the backs of others, premarital sex (“I don’t see any reason to wait”), sound bites and media clips, alcohol or worse to give that rapid temporary high … what are these but short cuts leading us down a road into our own little personal hells.
So, I suggest to you that this poses two questions to answer:
a) What does this mean for how I respond to Mugabe and others?
b) What does this mean for me in my personal life?
I’d say the answer to both is the same, Do NOT take a short cut.
OK you say, that’s easy to say, but what’s the “right cut”. Well, sorry to say, but I don’t know. But I’ll tell you how to find out.
Have you tried asking God to tell you? I mean, not just pray to ask God to “sort it out!” But hear the answer for YOU! What is he telling YOU?
Until you wait on God, you’ll never know!!!
Remember: Rom 6:12-13, 22 Is 40:31