“Don’t just think about your own affairs, but be interested in others, too, and in what they are doing.” (Philippians 2:4 The Living Bible)
A fun-loving child who loved to play games accompanied his parents to a downtown building to take care of some important personal matters. Once their business was completed, the three family members, mom, dad, and son, approach the revolving doors to exit the building. The son decided to run ahead and have some fun. He slips in a slot in the revolving doors and keeps pushing it around and around, at a pace that did not leave the parents a chance to slip in a slot to exit the building. The child is grinning and laughing as he goes around and around. Mom and dad are grievous, grumpy looking, and have given out any patience that they had initially.
The child continues to go around in circles in the revolving door. His parents convene. There is a single-entry door with a push bar to the right. They decide one of them will go out that door and look at the child, getting his attention and slowing down the pace of his circular route. As planned, when the revolving was slowed down as the child saw the disdain on the one parent’s face, the other parent was able to slip quickly in a slot and stop the revolving door. The child was gently snatched out of the revolving door. He was then lectured, lovingly so, about the immediate problem with his behavior and the parents used the revolving door experience as a life lesson, an analogy about how people young and old can get into various revolving doors in life, thinking they are having fun, but are really in a place where they shouldn’t be. The mother says, “That’s what we call developing a bad habit that is hard to stop.” The father says, “That’s what they call addiction.” A passerby, meddling for sure, but making a meaningful point, a person who had also been waiting to exit the revolving doors said, “That is how you cause trouble for self and others.” All these were great lessons for the fun-loving child, causing him to focus on more serious and deeper issues that he would face throughout life where things that look like fun become a fiasco.
Perhaps our purpose this morning is to tell you that when you see someone stuck in any kind of revolving door; any habitual bad behavior, any addiction, any perceived enjoyable stuff that will eventually turn into enduring trouble; perhaps we need to partner up and come up with strategies to help that person get out of the revolving door and stay out of the revolving door that is causing them trouble and/or trouble for others. Maybe we should strategize how to take control and do some teaching that will help that person, young or old, see the error of their ways. Think about these words I am sending you this Friday morning, another day that the Lord has blessed us to see. Let God use you! Partner up with someone like the responsible parents above in a gentle and lovingly way of you can. Be blessed!
“Two are better than one, because they have a good return for their labor.” (Ecclesiastes 4:9 NIV)
Still committed to the climb,
Mark L. King