Narrowly Avoiding Disaster

There are moments where one realizes how narrowly one has avoided disaster.

Do we grow up thinking - or are we trained - that the heart desires what it desires?  No matter: too many of us come to accept and believe this as our birthright.  And as our birthright, it is something we must have, something we are destined to have, perhaps something, even, we feel entitled too.

Except...

Except that it is often quite bad for us.  Except that is means we will hurt and lay waste to so many around us.  Except that it means, quite likely, we will never receive the thing that we think we are seeking.

Lust promises us all the physical fulfillment of our desires and emotional fulfillment that ordinary life "denies" us.  Greed promises us the the physical fulfillment of things to fill our lives and the emptiness therein.  Pride promises us that we can "feel" good about ourselves above the mensch that we are forced to live and work with.

Mind you, all of these involve chasing a goal that we can never achieve -  I have never heard the lustful, the greedy, the prideful, or anyone else pursuing sin cry "I am satiated!" - nor does it account for the inevitable falling away that happens when the thing crumbles (as they inevitably seem to) and convictions or commitments that would support us in that moment are not there. 

And how many times have I, only by God's grace, avoiding such things?  More times than I probably even consciously know - not by any power of my own, of course.  In so many ways, I am a disaster waiting to happen, an accident in search of a place to occur. 

Perhaps only in Heaven we will see the full extent of what could have transpired and gone poorly, but did not - and marvel again at God's grace and mercy.