Have you ever wondered why the obvious isn’t obvious to everyone? I recently spoke to a group of students and asked them the following questions. “Where did you get the first cigarette, snuff, chewing tobacco, vape materials, or the like? Where and with whom did you try any of those things? Where did you get a taste or interest in anything related to any type of drug or alcohol?” The answer was generally, “from friends.” I reply that people who introduce you to obviously harmful substances aren’t friends. They are enemies. But — it is not obvious to them. It is to me. I’m healed alcoholic who did a lot of extreme drinking while I was in high school. 

There are lots of things like that. It is a standard joke that all you have to do to get someone to do something, especially something bad, is to tell them not to do it. Why is that? Is it an inner rebellion which defies logic? Don’t touch the wet paint becomes an urge to see and, possibly, add a new stain on good clothes. “Warning, hot” can easily translate into blisters.

Consider all the warnings put on many of the things you buy, like irons, which warn you not to iron your clothes while wearing them. (Someone must have done that for the warning to be on the label to protect from lawsuits.) A temptation taken turns into an excuse, or series of excuses, (a lie to cover a fail) to promote the argument that the temptation was too powerful to resist, irrisistable. The excuse only works on the person telling the lie. Obvious? — not when you are the one lying.

I avoided Christianity because it was the religion of “don’ts.” Don’t drink. I did and became an alcoholic. Don’t cheat in school. I did, got caught, and faced the punishment. Don’t go to certain places where trouble rules. I did and found trouble waiting for me. It was glad to see me arrive and provided all the hardship I never wanted. The list goes on and on and on and ….. Somewhere in this list you might come across the obvious fact that the “don’ts” I hated would have kept me out of a lot of trouble, hurt, pain, and suffering. 

My parents were full of “don’ts.” Now I look back and see that they offered wisdom and an easy way out. I would have avoided trouble and found success. I would have gone straight through high school and college, started my career at twenty-three instead of thirty-four, and you can calculate the obvious benefits. Instead, I spent the intervening years wandering between troubles. Then the day arrived.

 I was focused on the “don’ts” even in the early years of my Christian faith. I had made so many mistakes that I put all my energy into stopping doing what I knew best, failure. It was stressful to say the least. It was like holding your hand a quarter inch from the wet paint and not going the last distance. It is so difficult to do the right thing when all your feelings are aimed in the wrong direction. My habits and inclinations were wrong and aimed in the wrong direction. My knowledge had accepted the obvious. “Don’ts” rescue from harm.

The great awakening began to arrive sometime (I don’t know when) from “don’t” to “do.” What I was leaving was not nearly as important as where I was going. You can’t plow a straight furrow while looking over your shoulder. “ Proverbs 29:18 “Where there is no vision, the people perish.” Looking forward provides hope. Looking back provides discouragement.

Instead of “Don’t drink to excess,” I began to focus my eyes on building real friends as opposed to those who just wanted company in the direction of sorrow. “Do” build a life of giving, which creates joyful memories and accomplishments you can enjoy without cringing. All the “don’ts” had a corresponding “do.” I realized that the Lord had saved me from the “don’ts” so that I could walk, with His help, in the “do’s” that satisfy, comfort, encourage, strengthen, and so much more. The more I walk forward in the direction that Jesus leads, the less sorrow and the more help I find along the way. 

I am amazed at how long it took me to realize that walking in the “do’s” with Jesus is travel toward and with Joy, the exact opposite of the distress I imagined as an outsider. My Christian friends shrug and say, Obviously.” It wasn’t then, but it is now. Salvation and walking with Jesus is the joy that continues giving without end.