Head-Lines

We have all experienced it at least one time during our lifetime...a leaky faucet. 

   We might first hear it as we are getting ready to leave for work. Drip...drip...drip. "I'm going to have to do something about that when I get home" you might say to yourself.

   Then later that week, while you are watching your favorite television program, you hear it again, and it's gotten a bit worse - drip...drip...drip.  Annoyed, you say  "I need to fix that when this is over" and you continue watching the show.

   Sometime during Sunday night, while you are turning over to get more comfortable, you hear it again, although this time it is echoing off of the broiler pan you left soaking - DRIP...DRIP...DRIP. You lie there in bed and try to fall back to sleep but the noise seems to be getting faster and louder with every moment.  You're tired so you try to ignore it, but its getting more prominent with every moment.  You toss and you turn, but it is still there.  Hour after hour...

   The next day your co-workers say "Hey, you look awful.  What's up with you?"  It would be too embarrassing to tell them that a little faucet leak kept you up all night, so you make up an interesting story to explain your lack of sleep.

   The next three nights you lose sleep over the constant pattern of the leaking faucet...DRIP...DRIP...DRIP! Then, as you stumble into your office everyone looks at you with concerned faces, and one person approaches you and says "Are you ok?"  "OF COURSE I AM!  MIND YOUR OWN BUSINESS!" you snap back. Your co-workers leave you alone the remainder of the day.

   Night after night, the saga continues, and you are becoming a shell of the person you once were.  Your body begins to show your exhaustion and lack of concern for your appearance.  Your mood is irritable and angry, nothing like the pleasant, happy person you once were. Everyone is avoiding you, not wanting to be subject to the negative response they now can expect from you.

   Driving home from work one evening your body gives out,  you fall asleep behind the wheel and crash head-on into an oncoming tractor trailer.  As you lie in the mangled wreak, feeling the life drain out of you, you think "Why didn't I just fix the faucet when I first noticed the leak?"

Ok, that seems extreme. But this is a perfect example of addiction. 

You want to experience it just one time, for curiosity's sake...drip...drip...drip.

You try it again, telling yourself that it will never happen again...DRIP...DRIP...DRIP.

A few more times, but you feel you have it under control.  Friends comment that you are looking tired.  You make up a story to cover up the truth.  DRIP...DRIP...DRIP.

The behavior continues until everyone notices that you are no longer yourself.  Your performance at work is suffering, you fall behind on your bills, your friends stop calling, and your responsibilities fall by the wayside.  DRIP... DRIP... DRIP!

You lose your friends, your job, your money...then one day your body can't take anymore and gives out.  As you lie there dying, you ask yourself  "Why did I do this?"

You fell prey to weakness...

The absence of Christ in your life leads to lack of strength...which leads to succumbing to weakness...which leads to a life of misery, and worse yet, an eternity of suffering.

The grace and mercy of Christ helps you to fix the leaks "sins", and if "drips" (temptations) occur, you know just how to fix them and prevent things from getting worse.

Every Christian can attest to Phillippians 4:13 and 2 Thessalonians 3:3.  Look them up for yourself.

Something to think about...