Quit Tipping Your Chair

Quit tipping your chair.  Put it down on all four legs.

If I've told a student this once, I've said it a hundred times.  Let's get this straight.  It's not that I really care one hoot about the chair being tipped.  To be honest, I get the fact that it's relaxing to tilt it back onto two legs.  It's not a big deal in the grand scheme of life.  But, I also get the concept of gravity as a student precariously balances on two chair legs.  So when I say to quit tipping the chair, it's not about the chair.  It's about the one who sits in it.  It's about their safety and well-being.  That same kiddo who over and over again leans back eventually reaches that moment of regret when he has gone a millimeter too far and the great spill occurs.  The seat dramatically plunges to the ground, jarring and slamming its passenger into the unforgiving floor below.  Ouch.  Don't say we didn't tell you.

Quit tipping your chair.  "I know better than that," you respond, agitated and offended that I'd even waste your time with something so common sense.  But seriously, quit.  We've been warned and reminded, so listen up and put it back on the firm foundation. 

It's practically childish at such a basic level, but too many of us don't get it in the chair of life.  Humanity began with the best of seats on a firm foundation, but from Adam and Eve right on down the line to you and me, we've been tipping it back dangerously ever since.  Sure, we'll keep it positioned just right in this or that area of life, but you willingly make allowances for sinfulness here and there.  "After all," you think, "I can keep it balanced."  Perhaps you even encounter a scare, a moment when the ugliness of sin and disobedience burns you just enough to pull back.  It's like almost falling, but catching yourself before a true tumble.  Yet you're unrepentant and fall into the same patterns again.  Tipping, tipping, tipping.  That's dangerous business.

In Zechariah 1, the prophet addresses a people who come from a long line of chair tippers.  Do not be like your fathers, to whom the former prophets cried out, 'Thus says the Lord of hosts, Return from your evil ways and from your evil deeds.'  But they did not hear or pay attention to me, declares the Lord. (Zechariah 1: 4)  The Israelites, God's people, had tasted and seen the consequences of their forefathers' disobedience and turning from the Lord.  It seems ludicrous that they'd even so much as tiptoe toward this way of living, but Zechariah's words from the Lord made it clear that they were just as hard headed and stubborn.  Why should they listen to His call:  Return to me, says the Lord of hosts, and I will return to you, says the Lord of hosts. (Zech. 1:3)?  Just as my warning to my students comes from the heart of a teacher, a caregiver who desires the well-being and good of the children in my care, how much more must our great Teacher love us?  Jesus Christ left His rightful place in heaven to walk among humanity teaching, healing, and loving.  He lived a sinless life where we could not and stretched out His arms on a cross to pay the penalty for our sins and receive the judgment and wrath that our disobedience and evil deserved.  But the story was not over, for He conquered death and rose victorious offering union with Him, abundant life, and salvation to those who confess Him as Lord of their life.  Our great Teacher, our beloved Savior instructed, If you love me, you will keep my commandments. (John 14:15)  With a heart overflowing with thankfulness and joy for His grace and mercy, I want to please Him.  And the incredible part of it is that His commandments are there for our good and best interests!

Are you done deliberately tipping your chair, precariously balancing on the edge of destruction and heartbreak?  Put it back on the firm foundation of Christ, our Rock that cannot be shaken or moved.