[Biblemat] A> Missed It By THAT Much!

[Steven C. Harper]

From: TRUTH & REASON, a bulletin of the Glendale church of Christ, Glendale, AZ. 
Editor: Steven Harper 
May 27, 2007

Missed It By That Much!

 

     My wife never cared for it, but I have always enjoyed the old television show "Get Smart". Agent Smart was - shall we say - not what his name might have indicated. He was a bumbling spy who worked for the secret U.S. agency C.O.N.T.R.O.L. and who was in constant conflict and competition with their archenemy, K.A.O.S., and it always came down to some other agent rescuing Smart from himself or from the results of another failed attempt to catch the international criminals. When cornered, Smart would inevitably try to convince his captors that there were rescuers nearby and that they greatly outnumbered the "bad guys." His infamous line always began, "Would you believe.?" Of course, they never did believe him.

     At other times, when Smart attempted to catch another K.A.O.S. criminal, things would go horribly wrong and some disaster would strike, destroying some of his agency's equipment or damaging it beyond repair. So many times, Smart would make a feeble attempt at some task, only to turn to his nearest friend or agent while ignoring the resulting catastrophe, and try to convince them he wasn't as incompetent as it appeared. He would often say, "Missed it by THAT much" [with his thumb and index finger slightly separated]. It's as if he was THIS CLOSE to doing something great, but never quite got there. But secret agent Smart didn't just miss; he missed badly and he missed often.

     Years ago, when I was a young boy growing up in Arkansas, one of the tasks I sometimes had was taking out the trash and burning it. [I lived out in the country and that's what people did back then.] It was a strictly-enforced rule that there should be no aerosol cans in the trash to be burned because they often are still under some degree of pressure and, if heated in a fire, they might explode. Normally, I checked everything I threw into the fire, but I can't say I did it all the time.

     One day when I was not so diligent in my efforts, I just threw the whole sack of trash onto the burning fire and stood nearby to watch the fire. As I recall, I had my head down, looking at the ground, bored to death that I had to stand out there doing nothing but watch the fire burn up all the trash.

     And then I heard an explosion. As I started to lift my head, I felt something hit me on the forehead. I didn't pay any attention to it at first, but then I felt something watery running down my nose and eyes. I brought my hand up to my head and then back down and saw that it was blood! I ran quickly away from the fire, now understanding that a can had blown up and part of it had hit me in the head. When I ran inside to tell my mother, I am sure she was wondering what I had done, with the blood freely flowing and a stunned look on my face. After we both calmed down and I told her what had happened, she cleaned up the area and removed a piece of metal from my forehead [no anesthesia or painkillers!] and put a bandage on the wound. Days later, when the knot on my forehead was not going down, we did a little deeper investigation and found another piece embedded a little deeper which was then removed [again, without anesthesia or painkillers]. I still have a small bump on my forehead that constantly reminds me of that day and how that small projectile missed hitting my left eye by 'that much'!

     Sometimes in life, we face some of those situations in which dangers threaten us and only by the slightest margin do we escape what could have been disastrous results. Sometimes, we willingly place ourselves in situations that endanger our own soul and, sadly, some do not escape the dangers before they suffer the spiritual consequences. Sometimes we cannot foresee dangers that threaten our spiritual well-being, but sometimes we can - but act as if we cannot. In the situation described above, I could have eliminated the danger if I had checked the trash before throwing it in the fire; sometimes, we can eliminate dangers before they become dangers, too. But because of neglect or apathy, sometimes we do not see the dangers until they are staring us face to face. Then what?

     One restless night long ago, King David arose from his bed and - for who knows what reason - went out and walked on the roof of the house (2 Sam. 12:2). Maybe the current battle was on his mind; maybe it was another one of those hot and humid nights when he just couldn't sleep; maybe he was awakened with the thought of God's Word as he wrote about in his psalms (Psa. 63:6; 119:148); we are not told why he awoke. The text simply says "it happened" that he did this. But on that night, David would "miss it by that much" when he happened to see a woman bathing. Instead of turning away and putting the sight out of his mind, David inquired about her and ended up having an adulterous affair with her that eventually led to the death of her husband (2 Sam. 11:14-17) and the child his sinful act produced (12:16-18), and gave cause for the enemy to blaspheme (v. 14).

     What heartache and trouble could have been avoided by David if he had simply turned away! He missed spiritual purity by 'that much'! David later recognized his own sin and felt the heavy burden of having transgressed God's will and acting so foolishly. When he wrote about it, he spoke of it as an evil that he had done in the sight of God (Psa. 51:4), and asked God to deliver him "from the guilt of bloodshed" (v. 14). Maybe it was at this time when David wrote of how he felt the heavy hand of God upon him for his sin and wrote the following words: "For when I kept silent, my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long. For day and night your hand was heavy upon me; my strength was dried up as by the heat of summer" (Psa. 32:3-4).

     Friends and brethren, how many times do we "happen" upon situations where we have a choice of turning away or staying and endangering our spiritual condition and, by staying, "miss it by that much"? How many times do we face temptations and instead of taking the escape which God provides (1 Cor. 10:13), we stay and put our souls in danger? How many times do we face trials and give up when success was just a few months, days, hours, or even minutes away? How often we come so close to spiritual success and we give up or give in too quickly and easily and suffer the consequences? But how many times are we simply fooling ourselves, like old Maxwell Smart, and saying we "missed it by that much" when, in reality, we were not even close to spiritual success? How many times do we willingly put ourselves in spiritual danger and try to convince ourselves it's not as bad as it really is? Do we not make poor spiritual choices and then later feign surprise when things start falling apart around us because of those same poor choices? Friends and brethren, even Maxwell Smart knew the truth about his situation; he was just hoping he could fool others!

     As disciples of Jesus Christ, we must make wise choices and be ever aware that the devil is constantly planting spiritual land mines around us in the hopes that we will occasionally be inattentive or negligent and take that one false step. Sometimes, all it takes for our spiritual destruction is to "miss it by that much" as we take one small step away from spiritual purity and towards worldliness and sin. Though the dangers of sin are often hidden [the false teachers are likened to "hidden reefs"; Jude 1:12, NASB] and though our enemy disguises himself in the hopes we do not recognize him (2 Cor. 11:14), at least we should know that those dangers do exist and we do have an enemy, and we can be alert to the possibilities of those hidden dangers. It is when we start thinking 'That will never happen to me' that we are in the greatest danger! Don't deceive yourself!

     The great comfort for the child of God, though, is knowing that sometimes when we really do "miss it by that much," we have a means of being forgiven and restored to spiritual purity (1 John 1:9). Let's be wise in our choices and be aware of the possibility of stumbling so we don't miss heaven by that much.      -- Steven Harper
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