It was approximately four decades ago that Don Schlitz wrote “The Gambler’s Song”; over the next ten years Kenny Rogers, Bobby Bare and Johnny Cash recorded those familiar words (well, familiar to those of us who have been around for a while). The lyrics, couched in a catchy Western melody, also contain some old-fashioned wisdom. “You got to know when to hold ‘em, know when to fold ‘em,… know when to walk away, know when to run…”. Gambler or not, it makes a lot of sense.
Walking wisely isn’t always as easy, or attractive, as it may appear on the surface: Values clash, priorities get muddled, honesty is too often compromised in favour of politics or popularity and integrity is seduced by promises of material gain. As composer Schlitz wrote, you’ve got to know when to walk away, know when to run.
In this third admonition in his trinity of marching orders, the Apostle Paul admonishes his readers: “See then that you walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise…” (Ephesians 5:15). In other words, be careful.
The second directive, walk as children of light, invites us to walk in the blessings of His love: Choose right things but always cling to the promise that through Christ God sees us as righteous.
That first instructive spoke of walking in love. Where self gratification shouts “opportunity”, there’s no safer place to run than to the protection and shelter of the love of God. In so doing we are enabled to extend grace to others.
Too often religion has approached the matter of “sin” as nothing less that God waiting for us to fail so that He is justified in inflicting punishment. There’s nothing farther from the truth.
He’s love in the midst of conflict, light in place of darkness and a guide through life’s deepest valleys.
