Okay, I've got ZERO traction here!

Dear brothers and sisters, if another believer is overcome by some sin, you who are godly should gently and humbly help that person back onto the right path. And be careful not to fall into the same temptation yourself. (Galatians 6:1 NLT)

I know for a fact just how easy it is to get caught up in some temptation we might have thought we had already dealt with fully, for I have followed some path back to where I really shouldn't have gone on more than one occasion! I usually am smart enough to see that I am headed there, and maybe even arrived a little ahead of schedule! There have been times when I have needed the faithful words of a friend or two to direct me back on course again, simply because I get stuck in the mire of the wrong place I got myself into. There is no shame in needing help from time to time - there is more "shame" in not taking it when it is offered!

I honestly believe God puts us in a community of believers because he knows we don't always recognize how bogged down we are getting in our sin or compromise. It is like the one who drives tenuously through the muddy area, only to find the rear tires of the car keep sinking deeper and deeper into the mud. What do they do? They gun the engine hoping the more "power" they exert the quicker they will be free of what seems to be holding them captive! The issue isn't that we don't have enough "power" to escape the mire we are in, it is that we lack the "traction" to get out of that pit alone!

I watched a video on social media the other day of a lady trying repeatedly to step up onto a rather icy sidewalk and through her front gate toward the house. She took one step forward and slid almost ten back! Nothing she did made any difference in her getting from the "low position" she was in at the street level onto that "simple step up" onto the curb level. Something like six inches of distance separated her from making the progress she needed to make and she couldn't seem to get where she needed to be simply because there was absolutely no traction for her! We chuckle at the folly of that video, but the truth of the matter is that many of us are kind of like that when it comes to sin or compromise in our lives! We just cannot get enough "traction" to make even the smallest step "stick" so that we can make some forward progress.

It may not be that we want the help of another to see our sin or compromise, but we likely need their assistance to get some "traction" in our lives to get from where we are to where we need to be! There is nothing easy in taking that hand offered, nor is there "ease" in admitting we aren't headed in the direction we should have been. Yet, when we are encountered by one who comes along to give us that "push in the right direction", we'd be silly to refuse it! We could spend a whole lot more time stuck in the mire of our sin or compromise when we are too proud to admit we actually could use their hand! Just sayin!