Day 17: Friday, February 22nd, 2008

Daily Reading: Proverbs 4:10-15

Have you ever noticed how quickly we forget the things that we value the most during temptation? Temptation has this way of completely blinding us - we see something we want and *WHAM* suddenly nothing else matters.

From the Garden of Eden and that shiny fruit, to David with Bathsheba, to Judas and 30 pieces of silver... to that thing you struggled with just yesterday... Temptation causes us to forget.

Our entire thought process changes. One moment we are believers in Jesus trying our best to follow His example, and the very next minute we become something else all together.

In the Lord of the Rings trilogy, there is a character named Smeagol who murders his friend to get a ring they found together while fishing. Subtly, over time, the ring corrupts and distorts Smeagol into something else all together, and he becomes Gollum. Nothing matters except to him except the ring. He is completely obsessed with the ring. The ring becomes his "precious" and costs him everything he had - family, life, health, friendship and wholeness. Gollum lives alone in the dark, separated from the rest of creation, obsessed with only the ring.

What is your ring? What is most precious to you that would cause you to forsake the very things you know are of the highest value? What temptation is subtly destroying you?

How can we remember? During our times of temptation and blindness, how can we see again?

courage my friends,
-davey