Friday, March 25, 2011

FOOLED BY OUR FEELINGS: A PARABLE FROM AMERICAN CULTURE

I was using the garbage disposal the other day in our new apartment and I noticed something.  It is on the wrong side.  Now I know there truly is no right or wrong side to have the disposal on, but in my old house it used to be in the right sink and now it is in the left sink, creating this feeling of 'wrongness' every time I'm putting something into it.

This made me make the parallel that something similar occurs to us after we are born again.  We have new desires and begin doing new things and forgetting the old things, but every once in a while we 'feel' that something we are about to do is still okay even though it is sin.  It is our old habits telling us that it felt good last time and so it will still feel good this time also.  It is our flesh telling us that we used to like this sort of thing before and so we will surely like it again.  We may even get to the point of temptation where we are actually committing acts of sin and it is then that we realize that doing things the old way did exactly what the Bible told us it would do, clog the drain.  Pouring food down the drain on the right side of my new sink may feel right, but all it will do is clog my plumbing if I continue to practice this.  In the same way, if I continue to do things the old way, just because they 'feel' right sometimes doesn't mean they will deliver the way they used to.  If you are born again, you can be sure that no matter how enticing something seems at the outset it will only clog up your spiritual life with God.  

Don't forget, the disposal is now on the left.

1 comment:

  1. 'Tis a neat parallel. I like illustrations like this that are easily remembered from everyday situations. I'm sure this will certainly come to mind often due to the amount of time personally spent at the kitchen sink.

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