Spiked Student Ministries

Application
When warning signs come up in our lives, when we see danger ahead, we have to make a decision. We either choose to act as a wise person or as a simple person. And once we choose, there are two different outcomes. The result of being prudent is that you look like a fool. You didn’t see that coming? It’s true. Prudent people act like the future is now. They don’t wait until they are at the wall. They stop a few miles ahead. They don’t wait until the brink of disaster. They make changes before they get there. They may look a little foolish to the rest of the world, but they avoid pain. They avoid suffering and unnecessary problems.

And the writer of Proverbs tells us specifically what the outcome is for the simple. Four words—they suffer for it. Because they saw the warning signs and kept going, they suffer. Suffering people often want to blame God. But God works on basic principles. If you jump off a building, you hit the concrete. Don’t blame God. It’s the principle of gravity.

Now don’t misunderstand me. I’m not saying that all suffering happens because of poor choices. I’m not talking about hungry children in Kenya or victims of abuse or natural disaster. I’m not trying to put judgment on all homeless people. I’m talking to you about your life. You know when you are suffering because of a poor decision. You know if you saw warning signs and kept going.

The problem with not changing direction as soon as you see the warning signs is that there are points when life begins to unravel and you are left with only bad options. Whether it’s school, dating relationships, party habits, whatever it might be, there are points at which all of your options are bad. You think back to last semester or last year and remember when you had better options. If you could back up, you could have gotten off the path with very few consequences. But there is a point on the path when the stakes go up. If you continue down certain roads, you will run out of good options. You will suffer harm.

You know what? It’s your own fault. God doesn’t love you less. God couldn’t love you more. But the frustration and the pain and the consequences are all because you violated a principle.

We end up where the path leads. I know it may not be your intention. It might not be your hope or your dream, but your path determines your destination. Once you realize you’re addicted, that’s not the time to think, “Hey, I need to be more disciplined.” The opportunity to be more disciplined is gone. You’re an addict. You’ve gone so far down the road, ignoring all the signs, that now none of your options are good. But there was a time where you had good options and people said to you, “You know, I think you are drinking too much. I think you are spending too much time on the Internet. I think you are spending too much time with her.” And you didn’t disagree with them. You just didn’t change. And now you are suffering for it.

You know, the area that this is probably most important for you is in the area of relationships. If you could begin to look at your relationships through the lens of this principle, it could radically change what’s going on around you.

Here’s a good way to begin to apply this principle to your relationships. Never evaluate a relationship based on where it is now. Always evaluate a relationship based on where it’s headed. All relationships move. They are getting better or worse. They are getting stronger or weaker. Are you headed in the direction of a stronger relationship with your mom? With your dad? Are you headed in a positive direction in your friendships? Is your relationship with your boyfriend or girlfriend moving you in a good direction for the future?

If you decide to get serious about this principle, there are four words I’d like for you to write down. These aren’t steps. They are experiences along the way. The first one is ACTION. You have to do something. You have to end that relationship. You have to make that phone call. You have to get rid of your DSL. I don’t know what it is for you, but I do know it’s an action that will change the direction you are headed. The prudent see danger and they don’t only pray, and they don’t just think about it, and they don’t sing a worship song. When they see danger, they take refuge, they take action. You have to do more than just feel bad about your situation and feel close to God because you had a religious experience with Him.

The second word is SACRIFICE. This principle requires sacrifice. You have to give something up, and we are not good at that. That’s just the culture we live in. The idea of sacrifice is so different. It is so uncomfortable. But if you apply this principle, you are going to have to sacrifice something. You may have to sacrifice your reputation. You may have to sacrifice your lifestyle. You may have to sacrifice a friendship. You may have to sacrifice a romance. I don’t know what it’s going to be, but I do know this—when you see warning signs, you need to act. Those actions almost always require a sacrifice, and that’s why we don’t do it. That’s why we go home to our same lifestyles or same habits or same relationships and say, “You know what, he’s probably right, but changing would just be so complicated.”

The third word is the word EMBARRASSMENT. This is an embarrassing thing to do because the people who know you are going to look at what you do. And they are going to think about you and the decisions you make based on what they see right now. But if you are taking this principle seriously, you are acting like then is now. You’ve decided, “I’m not going to respond to today; I am going to be prudent. I am going to respond to tomorrow. I’m going to respond to the day after tomorrow.” This means you’re going to make some decisions that your friends will not understand. You’re going to make decisions that even the smart people around you may not understand. You’re going to have to make decisions that you could never explain fully because they are so personal in nature. People will not understand your decisions and there may be an element of embarrassment.

The fourth word is RELIEF. This is the good news. One day you will breathe a sigh of relief. You may look back to this day as the day that you got off a path that was going to lead to destruction in some area of your life. A year from now, two years from now, three years from now, you’ll look back and breathe a sigh of relief, and you’ll say, “What if I hadn’t acted? What if I hadn’t made the decision? What if I hadn’t ended the relationship? What if I hadn’t confronted him? What if I hadn’t quit the team?” You’ll breathe a sigh of relief. Action, sacrifice, and there may be some embarrassment, but one day you’ll breathe a sigh of relief.

LANDING
I don’t want to waste my life. I don’t want to waste a year. I don’t want to waste a day. I don’t ever want to get to a place where all of the options are bad because I stayed on a path too long or because I saw the warning signs and refused to turn around. I want to get to the end of my life and breathe a sigh of relief. Not because I did the popular thing, but because when I saw trouble coming, I took refuge.

B. So let me ask you this: Are you on some paths that you need to get off? There’s still time. No matter how far you go down a path, you can change your direction. You may have to deal with the fallout from some of the choices you’ve made up until now, but you can heed the warning signs and head down a different path.

C. The temptation will be to think about all this now, or maybe the rest of today, or maybe even through the week, but then when you think about the sacrifice of making the change you will decide to just keep going. And even if you come back next week, and the next, and you go to summer camp, but you keep going on the path you’re on, you will suffer harm. There may be a day you would do anything to come back to this day and act on what you knew you needed to do.

D. Don’t waste another minute on a path that leads you somewhere you don’t want to go. Whether it’s in the realm of entertainment, or a relationship with alcohol, or your relationship with other substances, or your academic pursuit or whatever it might be, don’t waste another moment. Because your heavenly Father who loves you has put enough warnings in the middle of that road to show you the danger that is coming. Now it’s up to you to do something about it. The prudent see danger and take refuge. The simple, the naive, keep going and suffer for it.