Be Sure Your Sins Will Find You Out

Growing up folks always said I was a good boy, and I hope they were right, BUT I was a boy with all that implies. There were times I tried to expand the limits. Notice, I tried, rarely with success.

My cadre of explorers was going for a hike in the woods one day. Mom agreed for me to go with one caveat, no skinny dipping. It was a hot summer’s day. After walking in the woods, our wonder world, for a while we came to a cool little stream. My buddies all shed their clothes and plunged in with screams of delight. Enough is enough, this was too good to miss. There was no one within a mile of us. I hung my clothes on a vine covered tree and joined the swim. A few days later I developed a severe itching where no fellow with clothes on should have it. It was right where my pants should have been. Diagnosis, that little vine on the tree was, you guessed it, poison ivy. The evidence was undeniable. Verdict, guilty.

On another occasion I was told not to play on the recently picked cotton in our barn. Our large crib was nearly full and ready to go to the gin. I played on the hay in the loft of the barn for a while. When the time to leave came, surely one jump on the cotton would not hurt. I put one hand on one side of the opening from the loft and the other on the other side and swung down. As I did I heard a crack accompanied by pain. I could not tell anyone there was pain and what caused it. A few days later I had my shirt off. My mom, the in house truancy officer, asked what the lump in the middle of my chest was. Gotcha, I had broken my sternum and have a disfiguration to this day as proof.

Plowing and planting was a mixed bag. Our mule, old Tom, had finished plowing the field. My job was to drop the seed, that is, plant them. which soon became fatiguing and boring. With about 50+ seeds remaining I dumped them and covered them. A little over a week later my dirty deed became evident when there was a clump of plants sprouting together. As usual, guilty.

“He catches the wise in their own craftiness” (I Corinthians 3: 14)

There is a lesson there that applies to all of our actions: you always reap what you sow, you reap more than you sow, and you always reap later what you sow. That is an irrevocable, unalterable, absolute, universal law., meaning you can’t get away with it.

Basically, actions have consequences. Write that across the inside of your brow. Make every temptation pass under it for a final review.

There was a time when the thought that God sees you frightened me. Then it occurred to me that means He knows when I am in need of His help at all times.

Here is a final sobering thought regarding the final assize. “For nothing is secret that will not be revealed, nor anything hidden that will not be known and come to light.” (Luke 8: 17) If you get away with a thing here there is no getting away with it there.