Ticks and Sin

[289 words]

Ever had a tick on you? Ticks are small blood sucking mites. They spend a good bit of time just waiting in bushes, grass and woods for a victim–you! Once you happen by, they jump on and attempt to quickly crawl to a protected spot on your body. Then they sink their mouth parts into your flesh and begin to feed on life blood. If undetected, a tick will fill itself full and then drop off, often leaving its host inoculated with some debilitating disease such as spotted fever, relapsing fever, Lyme disease, tularemia, encephalitis or rickets. The tick is a lot like many kinds of sin:

• It may get on you when it is small and almost undetectable.
• It doesn’t demand much sacrifice, but it may cause a little irritation.
• Once embedded, it’s hard to get off.
• It gets bigger the longer it stays on you.
• It leaves you very seriously ill.

Some advice for dealing with ticks and sins:

DON’T WALK IN PLACES THAT ARE INFESTED. “See then that you walk circumspectly not as fools, but as wise (Ephesians 5:15).

EXAMINE YOURSELF DAILY. “Examine yourselves as to whether you are in the faith (2 Corinthians 13:5).

HAVE OTHERS EXAMINE YOU, AND HELP EXAMINE THEM TOO. “But exhort one another daily, while it is called ‘Today’, lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin” (Hebrews 3:13).

IF ONE GETS ON YOU, GET IT OFF IMMEDIATELY. “Confess your trespasses to one another, and pray for one another, that you may be healed” (James 5:16).

IF YOU REALIZE YOU ARE GETTING SICK, SEE THE DOCTOR. Jesus said, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance” (Mark 2:17).

Amon White
Broadway church of Christ
Metropolis, IL