Ahhh, yea … it’s another of those hypnotic evenings with the sun having settled down to a rosey glow at the horizon and the clouds are parceled out across the sky, looking like the porches at the entrance to Heaven’s gate … This evening the lilacs from down the road a piece are so fragrant, i can smell them all the way over here at the deck, overlooking the Ockluhwahhah River.
The view from here reminds me of part of a poem by Francis Duggan that goes: “A beautiful evening the birds chirp and sing, The wonders of Nature is a magical thing. The sun going down red in the western sky, And the roost bound starlings wheel and turn as they fly.”
The idea of our dialogue here is to speak to our issues about three inches beneath the surface of where we really live, waking up reality and perseverance, encouraging us to stop being compelled by panic and fear, to trust God – to stop and think … think before you act as best you know how. i mean, take a moment and play the entire movie out before you jump off that high place.
i knew a man, many years ago, who, when he was very young and wild (meaning he didn’t think much), was out carousing with some other young buddies late one evening. They stopped at a high bridge and decided to do some bungy jumping … but they didn’t have any bungy cords. Off to the side of the bridge they found an old rope, and being young and foolish they really didn’t realize there is absolutely no bounce or give in a large diameter rope. Without considering the outcome of his actions, the unthinking young man tied the rope to his ankle and jumped … yea, you guessed it, he lost his foot that evening. If he and his pals had simply thought about it, taking a moment to think ahead just a little bit, he would still have his foot today. That certainly was a humiliating and permanent lesson of “look before you leap”, or “play the whole movie” before taking action.
Luke 14:28-30, “Suppose one of you wants to build a tower. Will he not first sit down and estimate the cost to see if he has enough money to complete it? For if he lays the foundation and is not able to finish it, everyone who sees it will ridicule him, saying, ‘This fellow began to build and was not able to finish.‘”
A few weeks ago our program topic was “Foresight, Insight, Hindsight”, and tonight’s topic is sort of about those three elements of understanding, but more from another angle maybe. i think most people think of “foresight” in the context of a prophetic gift, by the Power of the Holy Spirit predicting a future outcome, or confirming the Word of the Lord that is already operating in someone’s heart … but tonight’s focus is more on the practicality and employment of foresight, insight, and hindsight. When we have understanding, putting into motion the wisdom of “look before you leap”, that means we are taking a circumspect view of things to gain insight when the Lord gives it to us.
Dr. Henry Cloud wrote a book in 2004, “Nine Things You simply Must Do” in which he probes the mystery of why some lives really work and others don’t. One of the chapters is labeled, “Play The Movie”. A moment ago, i gave a quote of Luke14:28-30. In the idea presented in that scripture, “… sit down and estimate the cost to see if he has enough money to complete it”, that means to “play the movie”, pencil things out to see where they go, find the hidden costs if any, see and perceive, asking ourselves the question, “Is this really what i imagined? Does it look like what i believe the Lord showed me?”
How often do you make a “knee jerk reaction” about something without considering the consequences? i mean, c’mon, we’ve all done crazy stuff in life at some point or another without considering the consequences of our actions; bought a car, spoken rashly, voted without weighing reality, drinking and driving, running with a crowd we know better than to hang with, etc.
A friend of mine and i were at coffee this morning and we were recounting past decisions that we made in a moment of haste without any thought as to the possible outcome … we also remembered the miracles in that we weren’t killed and how the Lord, in His everlasting mercy, protected us from ourselves. The Lord brought to my remembrance the time i needed to load a bull in a trailer, a really big bull, but he didn’t want to get in, of course. i had him corralled in a very small space and he just wouldn’t get in. In my frustration and anger, i grabbed a big stick and just jumped in the pen with the bull and whacked him round and round the little space until he got in the trailer. Only afterwards, only !afterwards! did it dawn on me the complete and utter foolishness of my actions. i didn’t play the movie, i didn’t look before i leapt … it never occurred to me that i was in close quarters with an aggressive animal weighing in excess of 2000Lbs who, at any moment, could have effortlessly crushed me. i think the Lord delivers us from ourselves more often than we comprehend. Ha! Ya’ think? Thank you, Jesus, for your mercy and kindness. Amen?
Luke 14:31-32, “Or suppose a king is about to go to war against another king. Will he not first sit down and consider whether he is able with ten thousand men to oppose the one coming against him with twenty thousand? If he is not able, he will send a delegation while the other is still a long way off and will ask for terms of peace.”
Within that scripture are the ear marks of someone who is looking ahead some, using a sharp pencil to find out the actual cost of performing their idea, has understood the potential outcome, and even made an alternate plan.
The word “circumspect” is an interesting word for us to get a good solid grasp on when employing the idea of “look before you leap”. Webster’s Dictionary simply says, basically, to take all things into account, but the word used for “circumspect” in Exodus 23:13, means so much more than that. The word says, “And in all things that I have said unto you be circumspect.” The Lord means for us to not only take all things into account, but to look at the noted details narrowly, scrutinize the information, and above all, do what the Lord says. We weren’t born being circumspect, so, let me add that if we know Jesus, God !will! teach us to be circumspect.
God’s idea of being circumspect comes into play in other scenarios. How about “think before you speak”. How many times have you spoken quickly, and, OH, didn’t you wish you could just get those words back? It’s sort of like sending someone an unkind remark by email … once you hit “Send”, it is gone baby, gone, and you can’t unring that bell. There is no “unsend” for email, nor is there an “unsay” for words that have hastily come out of our mouths.
The concept of being “circumspectful” is what is meant when i say “play the whole movie”.
Take Judas as an example, who acted so dishonorably by betraying Jesus. i believe he wished so bad he could take back his words and actions. But, in arrogance and blindness, he acted rashly and spoke unwisely. Look at his words, and actions in Matthew 27:3-4, “When Judas, who had betrayed him, saw that Jesus was condemned, he was seized with remorse and returned the thirty silver coins to the chief priests and the elders. “I have sinned,” he said, “for I have betrayed innocent blood.” “What is that to us?” they replied in a sneering tone looking down their long judgmental noses at him. “That’s your responsibility.” They got what they wanted, and their attitude towards Judas was like saying, “Too bad, too sad for you buddy!”
i’m not sure, but it appears to me Judas … possibly … thought if he gave the money back and confessed his wrong to the Pharisee’s, that maybe he could somehow undo what he had done. A paraphrase of Psalm32 is that confession is good for the soul, unless, it is confession to the wrong person or group. Judas not only didn’t play the whole movie concerning his actions but he also confessed his error to the wrong people. Need it be said, Judas did not take into account the life and miracles of Jesus, he did not carefully consider the details of what he had witnessed for the years he walked as one of the disciples … Judas was not a very circumspect man, he failed to play the movie beyond the part where he saw himself as having saved the day. There was no “unsend” button, nor was there any “unsay”, or “undo” option. And if anything, the Pharisee’s used his confession against him, were delighted at his brutal mistake, and i believe they were pleased he took his own life. i believe the Pharisee’s found it delicious to close the trap and watch him squirm. He couldn’t un-ring that bell.
How often have we made, on the spur of the moment, spiritually impacting decisions without considering the outcome? A man and his wife bought a car on the premise that if the loan was approved, it must be God. Well, of course the loan was approved. A bankrupt felon could have gotten approval. Six months later they went bust and wondered why God would do this to them. Was it really God who did this to them? Had they played the movie, and scrutinized the details, they would have never suffered the catastrophic outcome.
i knew a man who had a dream that went like this: in his dream he went to the bathroom and looked in the mirror. He only saw the nose and mouth of someone who sort of looked like him, but it wasn’t him. He woke up the next morning sure God gave had given him a vision of his future wife. He went about his day as usual, and that evening he went to a Bible study. There at the Bible study was an attractive young woman whose lower half of her face appeared exactly like the face he saw in the dream in the mirror. Immediately he had the idea he was supposed to marry that woman. Afterall, he was in the market for a wife, she was pretty, and she seemed to like him. He set himself on marrying her. He told her his dream and his intentions of marrying her, she bought into it, and two weeks later they were married. It turned out, after years of misery and struggle, he had done a knee jerk reaction, failing to play the rest of the movie, failing miserably at being circumspect.
When we take what we see in our foresight and give ourselves time to consider the details of what we have observed, getting insight, we’re typically not so quick to readily jump on popular trends and don’t tend to accept common advice as necessarily God’s wisdom. Proverbs 19:21, “There are many plans in a man’s heart, nevertheless it is the LORD’S counsel–that will stand.”
This is not about being cautious but about being wise – and understanding the ramifications of a proposed course of action. While others are ready to quickly decide an issue, looking before we leap often causes us to wait for a period of time, evaluating all sides of the issue, being neither proponents or opponents but simply keeping an open mind so that when a decision is made it is a wise decision. Playing the movie allows us to evaluate with objectivity rather than taking a position. i have a three day rule for buying a car, and what that means is that i figure Jesus rose from the dead in three days, and so in three days i can make a decision to buy or not. So far, it has worked out well. In those following three days, there is time to consider carefully and get a circumspect view.
How about the man and woman who were friends and went to a conference? While at the conference the speaker called them out of the crowd and prophesied that they should be married. They didn’t take into account the myriad of details that should have been carefully weighed before marriage, they didn’t count the cost … they failed to play the movie. They didn’t use a sharp pencil, scrutinizing the details, instead they took the conference speaker at his word, and got married straight away. It was a disaster which grew to super-volcano proportions quickly. How much different was that type of irresponsible behavior than the unthinking young man who went bungee jumping from a bridge with an unyielding rope tied to his foot?
In a foreign country a priest, a lawyer and an engineer were about to be guillotined. The priest puts his head on the block, they pull the rope and nothing happens. He declared that he’d been saved by divine intervention, so they let him go. The lawyer was put on the block, and again the rope didn’t release the blade. He claimed he couldn’t be executed twice for the same crime and he was set free also. They grabbed the engineer and shoved his head into the guillotine. He looked up at the release mechanism and said, “Wait a minute, I see your problem … ”
Oh, gosh, he just had to open his mouth. Obviously, the engineer didn’t weigh and consider carefully before he spoke, and once his words were out there, he couldn’t unring that bell.
My mother used to tell me that it was better for me to be quiet and only be thought foolish, than it was for me to open my mouth and be known foolish. For much of my life … i didn’t listen.
Ephesians 5:14-17 “Therefore He says: “Awake, you who sleep, Arise from the dead, And Christ will give you light.” See then that you walk circumspectly, not as fools but as wise, redeeming the time, because the days are evil. Therefore do not be unwise, but understand what the will of the Lord is.”
Mark 4:23-24 “If anyone has ears to hear, let him hear. Consider carefully what you hear.” God’s meaning of “consider carefully” means to take in all the details, scrutinize them, leaving nothing out. And as to the use of the word “consider” in Greek … it means to “ponder to conclusion”, play the whole movie, or “look before you leap”, and we should do it carefully. To summarize that scripture it reads, “after you have taken in the details and, so to speak, penciled it out and perceived, after you’ve been to the Lord about what is in your mind, come to a conclusion and take action.” That is considering your hindsight, getting insight from the Lord, taking note of your foresight, draw it all into a conclusion, and then setting out to accomplish your task.
That method is the way the Lord does things. He is our example of “play the movie”, or being circumspect.
Isaiah 46:9-10 9 “I am God, and there is none like me, Declaring the end from the beginning.” Our God is circumspect. He knows the end from the beginning, and takes all facts and intents of the heart into account.
Imitating the Lord, we are called to be wise and to take into account the ramifications of our possible actions ! before ! we jump and run. i’ll ask again, How often do you make a “knee jerk reaction” about something without considering the consequences? Think about that, and after you’ve thought, then think about it all some more.
When we take God seriously and practice the conclusion of our foresight and insight, life gets radically better. We may not be too good at it now, but the more we practice “looking before we leap”, counting the cost before we go to war, the better we get at it. To “play the movie” is one of the things alcoholics learn to do in order to succeed. Like Dr. Henry Cloud said, “Going to the movies can save your life by preventing bad things from happening, and it also enables us to see the good things that can happen also.”
i’m Social Porter and this has been Outposts, a beautiful evening on the deck overlooking the Ockluhwahhah River, where the trees gently lean over and every evening is pleasant.
Pick up your cross this week, afterall, no one can bear it but you. Look before you leap, see your options before hand and be circumspect about what you perceive. As you go your way, take the time to pray for someone with words that make a difference. Be strong and courageous, and i’ll talk to you next time.