The Watcher

Luke 21:34 "But watch yourselves lest your hearts be weighed down with dissipation and drunkenness and cares of this life, and that day come upon you suddenly like a trap.”

How easy it is to get caught. I used to love to play "Hide and Seek." I had some really awesome hiding places especially when we would play at church. There were some places that no one knew about except me. I could hide for hours and no one would find me. There was something about hiding that I liked to do. It was as if I knew everything going on, but no one knew about me. I was in my own world and safe.

How true of us is that today. I think one of my problems, and perhaps yours as well, is that we are still hiding. We don't want people to know who we are or what we have been doing, because if they found out they might not like us for who we are. A lot of life is spent in hiding and hoping that no one finds us. The problem with hiding is that at some point we need to be discovered. We need to be exposed to the faulty thinking and life practices we exhibit and make a change in us.

Jesu’ words today are challenging in that He calls us to "watch" ourselves when it comes to living life. It is easy to get caught doing and believing the wrong things in order to hide. We get caught in things that don't produce quality in life, in fact, the opposite happens. We fill our lives with things that weigh us down or fill us with unproductive thoughts, actions and attitudes.

Jesus reminds us that life is filled with consequences. The consequence of an undisciplined life is that we will not be ready when "that day" comes. "That day" has many meanings. First, it is talking about the last days when Christ returns. It also reminds us about those times in life when we were caught in other stuff and not prepared to go when called.

The solution is simple. We are to watch ourselves, i.e. we are to develop the practice of watching our lives so that these things that distract don’t catch us unprepared.