This week I suddenly noticed that my razor was dragging a bit. It didn’t hurt, just tugged a bit as I pulled it across my face. For a while I notice that when I don’t shave for a day or two it will pull a bit but that doesn’t happen very often. So, I decided change the blade. I am a bit of a cheap skate so I don’t change them as often as maybe I should. The famous blue strip is long gone before I actually make the change.
Once again, as I every time I actually change blades, I was surprised how dull my razor had become. It had no pull, and I could barely tell anything was happening. That got me thinking. The difference is so slow, so subtle that I never notice the change. Suddenly there is the moment of recognition. Something has changed.
That got me thinking about other things which seek up on us. I blissfully wash and comb my hair each morning then all at once, “Hey, I need a haircut.” Every so often I will look down and wonder, “How did my nails get so long? Didn’t I just cut them?” Or maybe it is adding a few pounds, or a couple of new gray hairs. Change comes so slow that we just don’t notice. Then boom.
The Bible warns that such is sin as well. We don’t start out as a murderer or an adulterer. We start out as someone who looks at people the wrong way. May be get angry at them or consider them to be stupid. Perhaps we let our eyes wonder, and our thoughts ponder things and daydream about things we shouldn’t. As time goes on, these just keep growing and growing, then an opportunity presents itself and we are not where we want to be. I use an extreme example, but the principle is still valid. We are around people whose language is ‘salty’ or we watch TV shows that present images that are not exactly wholesome and at an inopportune moment a word comes out of our mouths that we never want to say. I fear something like that happening as I preach. I remember once calling some Bible character a turd and instantly regretted it but went on without comment. Someone asked me about it, and I confessed I hadn’t planned it nor meant to say it. It just came out. I am not sure where but there it was.
The point of this is simple to say, “Be careful little eyes what you see.” “Be careful little ears what you hear.” That old kid’s Sunday School still have validity and value. And as I think about it, there is a Casting Crowns which talks about it. Thanks to them for singing it so well, Slow Fade.