Elaine Marie Cooper
On the way to meet a friend for coffee the other day, my eye caught a site both beautiful and terrifying: A hawk swooping through the air. It came to rest on a pole, which gave me the opportunity to admire the creature’s beautiful feathers. Reddish brown wings and speckles of brown and white across its proud-looking chest were magnificent. What a gorgeous bird I thought. Gorgeous and deadly.
The hawk wasn’t there to preen its feathers; it was looking for prey. Perhaps a rabbit, mouse, or even a small pet left unattended would be snatched in its talons and carried away to experience a horrible death. Suddenly the bird didn’t seem so beautiful; it seemed terrifying.
I put the thought of this bird of prey out of my mind as I met my friend to share coffee. During our conversation she revealed a startling story about a recent discovery in her marriage that left her reeling. I was shocked and listened intently, while offering consolation as best I could. We had sweet fellowship that ended too quickly but we determined to meet again soon.
During our conversation, I thought about dinner the previous night with friends of my husband and I. I asked about a mutual friend on Facebook who I hadn’t seen in sometime. “You hadn’t heard? He’s in jail,” my friend informed me. I was so shocked that you could have knocked me out of the restaurant booth with a paper napkin. Especially when my friend shared the reason: child molestation.
Both of these individuals caught in sin were regular churchgoers, masking their sin behind the guise of pseudo-Christianity.
After pondering these back-to-back revelations, I thought of that hawk, looking so gorgeous yet ready to kill and destroy. Just like the evil one who can appear as an angel of light (2 Corinthians 11:13-14). And like the evil one, he seeks out any weakness in our armor. “Be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.” (1 Peter 5:8 NIV)
As writers for the Lord, we may have a giant target on our backs that encourages the evil one to set his eyes upon us, aiming arrows of deceit that can make us fall for his deception.
“It won’t matter if I write erotica under an assumed name. It pays the bills so I can afford to write Christian fiction.”
“No one will know if I’m watching this movie. My readers probably wouldn’t care, even if they knew.”
“What I do in the privacy of my home is no one’s business. So what if there’s porn on my laptop? It has no impact on my writing whatsoever.”
It’s easy to lie to ourselves. After all, the evil one is the father of lies (John 8:44)
May I encourage you to clean up your act? And I don’t mean self edit those mistakes in your manuscripts that make an editor cringe.
If you’re dabbling in sin, talk to a pastor or Christian counselor that you trust. Stop pretending that it doesn’t matter. Because if God called you to write, the evil one delights when he sees you fall. He loves that domino effect as we lead others down that slippery slope of sin.
Image of hawk courtesy of panuruangjan via freedigitalphotos.net
Image of claw courtesy of Pansa via freedigitalphotos.net
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