Be Wise about what is Good
“But I want you to be wise about what is good, and innocent about what is evil.” Romans 16:19b
I was serving as a chaplain for a minor league baseball team, and the week before our league’s All-Star game a few seasons back, I was sitting in the stands with a young pitcher who was on the injured list and charting pitches that day. At one point a young woman came up and asked him if he was going to be around during the All-Star break. He told her he was planning to be in town and she said, “Great, I know a bar we can go to where we won’t get carded.”
He was well under 21 and after she left, I asked him what he was going to do. He said he wasn’t sure yet, but I could tell from the way he said it that he would probably end up going. I suggested that as a professional baseball player and a follower of the Lord that he first ask himself two important questions, especially if he was leaning toward going to the bar.
The first question is, “What good can come from going?” The answer in this case, especially since he was under 21, was that both as a ball player and a Christian there was virtually nothing good that could come from a decision to go.
I also asked him to consider the inverse question: “What bad (or what problems) can come from a decision to go?” The answer in this case was that there were many potential negative consequences that could result.
I reminded this young pitcher of the verse above and told him I would pray that he would be wise about what is good, and innocent about what is evil in making his decision.
Are you considering doing something or going someplace that you’re not sure about? Be wise about what is good.
Having begun as a guest speaker in 2005, Dan was appointed Interim Pastor in 2008 and has been serving Maple Root Baptist ever since. As a small group leader and Chaplin for the Connecticut Tigers, Dan has a heart for the lost and the God that saves them.