Volume 2

22. Uneven Steps

Did you know that when a person is going up or down stairs, after the first two or three steps the brain automatically adjusts to the stair height and will continue to move the legs at the same pattern for the entire rest of the staircase? And if a step is off by even 1/4 of an inch/a few millimeters, even the most graceful people will stumble & fall.
In the United States there are laws against public buildings having stairs with uneven steps, because so many people have died or gotten injured falling down steps.

At my church, in the very back there are three steps leading into our sound booth. The top step is a lot shorter than the other two, and the first week in the building we stumbled a lot. But everyone that works back there quickly got used to it. The only problem was when non sound booth people came back there.
We completely forgot it wasn't up to code until the building inspector reminded us, so pastor got his son to fix it real quick. It had been a year.
Well, the new step is tripping us all! Every time for the first few weeks! Even the guy that fixed the stairs had a hard time initially. It's crazy because it's now exactly the same as the other two.

It was amazing to think that we had gotten used to something that was wrong so quickly, it took us less than a week to get used to a bad stair. It's been three weeks with the correct one, I must go up and down those three stairs a few dozen times every Sunday and every Wednesday, and I still have to remind myself, "watch out! The stair is higher!" It's harder to break the bad habit.

I couldn't help but think, it's got to be the same thing spiritually. If we are not strict with ourselves and staying up to code, we easily fall into bad habits and forget we even have them. We become numb to the fact that we have these bad habits, these sins, and it's harder to break it later on then it was to build good habits the right way in the first place.

A few encouraging verses on doing the right thing, forming good habits, and breaking bad ones:

2 Timothy 2:26
And they may come to their senses and escape from the snare of the devil, after being captured by him to do his will.

2 Timothy 1:7
For God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control.

Ephesians 4:22-24
To put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.

1 Corinthians 10:13
No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it.

Philippians 4:13
I can do all things through him who strengthens me.

Romans 12:1-2
I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.

1 John 1:9
If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

Proverbs 28:13
Whoever conceals his transgressions will not prosper, but he who confesses and forsakes them will obtain mercy.

1 John 2:15-17
Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride in possessions—is not from the Father but is from the world. And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever.

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Sorry for the slow updates, between college and my family and working on stuff at church it's been a little hectic! Survived the first Ortho exam of the fall though, how are y'all doing?