There’s a Way Out
Often we make excuses for our weaknesses, or blame others. The poet wrote, ‘An enemy I strove to know, he dogged my steps where’er I’d go. My plans he baulked and blocked my way, to lofty goals he answered “Nay!” Till I from him the veil did draw, I looked and lo—myself I saw.’ When John Wesley’s students met each week they would ask each other these four questions: (1) What sins have you committed since we last met? (2) What temptations have you faced? (3) How were you delivered? (4) What have you thought, said or done, of which you are uncertain whether it is sin or not? Those four questions will keep you spiritually alert, and on track. Paul writes, ‘When you are tempted, [God] will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it.’ In her essay A Way Out, Portia Nelson writes, ‘I walk down the street. There’s a hole in the pavement and I fall in. I’m lost; it isn’t my fault. It takes me forever to get out. I walk down the street again. There’s a hole in the pavement but I pretend I don’t see it, so I fall in again. I can’t believe I’m in the same place; still, it isn’t my fault. I walk down the street again. There’s a hole in the pavement. I see it, but I still fall in—it’s a habit. But now my eyes are open and I know where I am. It is my fault. I get out immediately. I walk down the street. There’s a hole in the pavement. I walk around it. Finally, I walk down a different street!’