"A prudent person foresees danger and takes precautions
The simpleton goes blindly on and suffers the consequences"
Is there any hobby, sport, activity in your life where you carefully examine all you are doing to avoid risks? When I play golf, I study each shot looking for what could go wrong, and making sure (to try at least) to avoid the dangers. I'm sure we all can at least sort of relate to having something in our lives that we treat this carefully. When you think about this activity in your life, ask yourself this question: are we as careful in this activity (golf in my example) as we are in our daily spiritual life? I certainly cannot say that I am on a regular basis....
Reflection:
Today more than ever, we are faced with the "dangers" this verse speaks about. And today more than ever, it is very easy to find yourself face to face with these dangers without even realizing it. The internet, TV, movies, and even conversations with people on the street can lead us down a path that we may not want to be on.
Pay attention to the media you watch on TV or the internet. Morals are going out the window, and the Christian faith is being made into a joke on many shows and even news outlets. I challenge you to find more than a handful of shows (and any that are considered "top primetime shows") that don't contain violence, sexual immorality, and/or gross language (among other things).
Am I saying we should refrain from everything with a touch of immorality? Become a "prude" so to speak? Definetly not. Not only is it border-line impossible in today's society to do so, but I don't think thats what this scripture tells us to do either. However, we should recognize when we see these dangers in our daily life, and take the necessary precautions to make sure they do not influence us negatively. There are many people in our lives, maybe even friends, who wont give a second thought to talking about their "sexual conquests", "that crazy movie they saw", "or that comedian who made all the obscene jokes. Can we avoid every one of these conversations? Of course not. But we do have to be ready to recognize the possibility, and be prepared to respond accordingly. Sometimes that may mean just keeping quiet, sometimes it may mean walking away, and sometimes it may require us to say something. But regardless of the answer, the most important thing is not to be sucked in to this mindset that has become prevalent in society, that making light of our spirituality views and moralas is "no big deal"....
This verse doesn't mean "don't have fun", "don't watch tv", "don't engage in any conversation involving something immoral". It just means be careful, and if you see a danger, take the necessary precautions. For instance, if you don't believe in drinking, that doesn't mean you have to stay away from every restaurant that serves alcohol where others will be drinking. But if you know that a certain place will be filled with people pressuring you to drink and you question whether you may "give in", then you should stay away. If you know a movie has violence, sex, language, etc....it doesn't automatically mean you shouldn't watch it. But you should exercise precaution, and possibly avoid such "danger" if you think it will have a negative effect, or influence in a way that puts your faith in a bad light.
Final Thought:
On TV, Sports commentators analyze athletes decisions throughout the game. Imagine we were analyzing our daily decisions from a spiritual perspective, what would be our analysis?
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