“When he returned, he said to his father and mother, “I have seen a Philistine woman in Timnah; now get her for me as my wife.” His father and mother replied, “Isn’t there an acceptable woman among your relatives or among all our people? Must you go to the uncircumcised Philistines to get a wife?” (Judges 14:2-3 NIV)
A couple of houseguests ask if it is okay to use the washer & drying in the laundry room. Our response, demonstrating the hospitality that good Christian folks should, was, “Please do!” After all, the laundry room was not loaded with dirty clothes, there were plenty of laundry supplies, and I had recently hauled out all the stored items that had been left behind by kids for over a years. I had even swept the floor. I thought it all cleaned out. Well, a day later during dinner one of the houseguests who had been here several years commented, “I see you have that same old cricket in the laundry room!” I laughed so hard; almost couldn’t stop. Tears were dripping down the side of my face. My head was bobbing up and down keeping rhythm with my stomach bouncing in and out, as if I were that fictitious O’ Saint Nick. The discovery of the same old cricket had me cracking up! You are probably laughing right now, but that’s okay. And yes, it is still, resting in peace, in repose, waiting to be removed. It’s motionless and harmless.
I think that all of us, from a metaphorical perspective, need to be on guard for “the same old cricket,” not the orthoptera insects that find ways to sneak in your house; not these bugs that are irritants in one part of the world and invited delicacies in other places of the globe. No, our “same old crickets,” are those temptations that Satan attempts to use to cause us to follow the sinful desires of self and the set examples of the secular world. Now, as it relates to the same old cricket my houseguests saw, I guess that it had to be a different one than the one that held that space years ago. They only have a lifetime of eight weeks and decay will not leave much behind to distinguish it as a cricket. However, for us, a people of faith like Samson who is listed in the examples of faithful people in spite of his weaknesses for Philistine women, we will find ourselves fighting the same temptation repeatedly. That is, until we have convinced Satan that we are not giving into the temptation no more, but rather we are opting to take the way out which God simultaneously provides. With God’s help, we can avoid “the same old cricket.” All things are possible with God. If you have a “same old cricket” issue, have victory over it today! Stomp it out of your mind! Clean up any remains in your thoughts! Throw it in the place where you threw other things that used to nag at you; inviting you to sin! I know you can do it! Depend on God! As the children’s song says, “There is nothing that you and God cannot do! No more same old crickets, okay? Be blessed!
“No temptationhas overtaken you except what is common to mankind. And God is faithful; he will not let you be temptedbeyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can endure it.” (I Corinthians 10:13 NIV)
Still committed to the climb,
Mark L. King