Hot Water Experiences...

My family and I have begun watching the "Lost" tv series. It's already in its 4th season so we're starting on the first season and thankful that it's available on DVDs given how each episode leaves us wanting answers that we now don't have to wait a week for...:). After watching a few of the episodes, I found myself thinking a lot about what our Senior Pastor John Henry has described as "hot water experiences" (in this sermon John speaks of a tea bag and a cup of hot water: the water doesn't give the flavor of the tea - what's in the tea bag is released as a result of the hot water). Hot water experiences seem to abound in the show: 46+ people thrust into a "Lord of the Flies" knock-off, loosed from the common culture, and forced into situations they would never otherwise have dreamed they would encounter.

In another way, I've been reminded that motivations which drive the decisions we make are at once complicated and simple - complicated, in that we have multiple external pressures which drive our decisions from situation to situation and simple in this: unless motivations are borne from internal (heart-cemented) convictions which by definition are not easily swayed, then decisions can be made in some situations that would otherwise never be made. For example, if I decide not to steal because I may get caught and therefore punished, then perhaps I'll choose to steal if I'm assured that I won't get caught. On the other hand, if I decide not to steal because of an internal conviction (i.e., I know it will please the Father if I refrain from stealing) then I won't steal regardless of the probability of being caught.

Ok. So what? In the show, each character is faced with trial, deadly circumstance, personality conflicts, and other dangers. We watch as they deal with issues they would have never otherwise imagined having to deal with. Yet, there they are. And, so are we. For no matter how we try to protect ourselves from "hot water experiences", they do come. We may not be stranded on a REALLY strange island with strange people. True. But, we may suddenly have sin thrust at us and have to quickly choose whether to go along with the crowd (even a crowd of one) or to walk away and suffer the social pressures that come from that decision. We may have to simply decide to pay our full taxes when no one would know if we didn't. Or, look at something inappropriate on the Internet when we think no one will ever know.

Oswald Chambers is quoted: “My worth to God in public is what I am in private.” Or another one from another source: how I practice is how I will play. The times alone with God and His word, led by the Holy Spirit, are what will matter when the hot water experiences come. Will you be ready? Will I?