After several days of heavy rain, the lake water continued rising. At one end of the lake, the old South Fork Dam held the water from spilling over into towns below. The largest town, Johnstown, sat just fourteen miles away. As the rains persisted, the dam grew weaker.
The citizens of Johnstown, Pennsylvania knew of the possibility of the dam failing, but didn’t believe it would. But on this day in 1889, the dam broke, sending a powerful gush of water through its broken walls. The flood pushed through small communities, taking several lives and gathering rubble along the way. Within minutes, tons of water, mud, and wreckage ripped through the unprepared city of Johnstown. Over 2,000 people died.
What caused this vital dam to fail? Along with the heavy rains, several other factors were considered. The dam weakened when the owners lowered it a few feet to expand a roadway running across its top. In addition, they did not replace vital water drainage pipes. Fishing nets positioned along the brim of the dam’s spillway kept valuable fish from escaping but also caused debris from the lake to get stuck. Whatever the reasons, the heavy rains of 1889 caused a costly collapse.
This story of the South Fork Dam gives us a good example of what can happen when we ignore certain dangers in our lives. Like the dam, our resolve to follow God’s path weakens.
What does God call us to do? Build strong dams!
How do we do that? Unlike the owners of the South Fork Dam, we must look at the problems and potential dangers in our lives, then take the required action. Uncontrolled sin can destroy God’s plans for us and hurt others. The distractions of this world, though not sinful, may also cause cracks in the life of a Christian trying to serve him. We have to discern between the unnecessary things in our lives versus the essential. And understand the vital importance of trusting in and obeying God.
Sometimes it’s easy to stay blind to the dangers of our thoughts and actions. Often subtle are the behaviors that weaken and sometimes destroy our spiritual growth.
Pride
Satan, one of God’s mighty angels, fell completely. Why? Pride. God’s first created human beings, Adam and Eve, sinned. Why? Pride. What creates more problems in our Christian lives than any other, even today? Pride. We can place pride at the center of most sins in our lives.
Satan, our enemy, attacks our strengths and our weaknesses. He works hard to get us to think we are smarter, stronger, or more valuable than others. Pride can even rise above the wisdom and knowledge of God.
We counter Satan’s attacks to sway us toward prideful living with humility. Humility cultivates reverence and respect for God. It views our opinion of ourselves in relationship to the mightiness of God. The person who practices humility understands his or her position before Christ. We might take pride in loving others well, but we can never match God’s love for others. Or perhaps we excel at math, but can we count the stars in the sky? A humble person fears the consequences of allowing pride, personal ambitions, and human understanding to exceed God’s ways and wisdom.
The world tells us to take pride in our own lives, but Scripture tells us “the pride of life comes not from the Father but from the world” (1 John 2:16). As believers, we now center our lives in the new life Christ offers, not the ways of the world with all its prideful pursuits. “So then, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; what is old has passed away—look, what is new has come!” (2 Corinthians 5:17).
Conceit, envy, and jealousy become symptoms of pride. Once again humility must step in to combat pride. “Instead of being motivated by selfish ambition or vanity, each of you should, in humility, be moved to treat one another as more important than yourself” (Philippians 2:3).
Distractions
Satan focuses on destroying God’s plan for our lives. He rallies his forces behind a powerful influence called distractions. Distractions snatch us from our devotion to Christ, often stealing our joy and peace.
Think again about the South Fork Dam. The people who owned this dam focused more on their expensive fish than on keeping the dam safe. In the end, this caused the purpose of the dam—protection—to fail. When our focus pulls us away from what God has for us, we too become vulnerable and at risk.
There is no greater distraction than money. Our lives and society revolve around money. Having enough of it dominates much of our time, along with the constant decision of how much do we truly need?
The news highlighted a new store, something similar to a mega-home store. A reporter stood outside the long line of people waiting for the grand opening. She asked several people what they needed and hoped to find in the new store? One answer caught my attention. The woman said, “I don’t need anything; the store will tell me what I need.” Are you letting the things of this world tell you what you need? Or asking the Lord to show you?
Money distracts both the rich and the poor. We either focus too much time on maintaining our wealth or spend our lives struggling to meet our basic needs. Regardless of the demand money has on our lives, it should never lessen our devotion to God.
Another great distraction is—us!
We spend a lot of time centered on our lives. It’s easy to substitute our worship of God with the worship of our own lives. Remember, humility views our opinion of ourselves in relationship to the almighty God. Sometimes we make worship a small part of our lives when it needs to be huge! No one describes the act of worship more beautifully than King David in Psalms 108:1-7.
What does this tell us about worship?
- Our worship is steadfast—loyal, unwavering, firm.
- Our worship is heartfelt, not phony, but full of life!
- Our worship is expansive; we show our praises of God to everyone, everywhere.
- Our worship reflects God’s love, his vastness, and his faithfulness to us.
- Our worship glorifies God alone, who exists everywhere, even beyond the heavens.
The world constantly waves all sorts of distractions in front of us. Even while writing about distractions, my mind wandered to other thoughts. I stopped and shouted, “Distractions!” a word I need to yell more often. Maybe you do too.
Trusting God
God loves it when we trust him. We live in a world of enormous uncertainty. History proves nothing ever stays the same. But God is immutable. He never changes! Living where God places us may not always be easy. We find comfort, though, in knowing that everything God says about himself never changes. We can count on God. When we know this and trust God, we find powerful protection. Psalm 28:7 reads, “The Lord strengthens and protects me; I trust in him with all my heart. I am rescued and my heart is full of joy; I will sing to him in gratitude.” You know you are trusting and relying on God when your heart is joyful, and your life is grateful.
Obedience
Did you know your first act of obedience to God starts when you choose to trust in Christ? God’s Word tells us, “Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life” (John 3:36). God requires acts of obedience from the beginning of our relationship with him to the end. Why? Throughout our life our obedience to God gets tested—a lot! When we live in obedience to God, we give evidence of knowing and loving him. Life runs more smoothly for us as well.
In Deuteronomy 13:1-4, we read about false prophets. A false prophet claims to speak for God but instead leads people to worship idols. Idols come in all varieties, from possessions, to people, even to nations. False prophets and idols may appear innocent, but eventually they turn our allegiance away from God. This world does not run short of false people and gods that tempt us to turn our hearts, souls, and minds away from our Lord. God warns us, “for the Lord your God will be testing you to see if you love him with all your mind and being” (Deuteronomy 13:3).
In summary, if we say we know him, if we say we love him, we will want to obey him. We will also want to trust him, worship him alone, evaluate our time and needs, and mature in Christ-like humility.