Does the Mud Get Glovy

Chuck Swindoll, one of my favorite preachers, asked a question years ago that has stayed with me for decades. He asked, “If you put on a white glove and  reach down into a mud puddle, does the mud get glovy or does the glove get muddy?” It has been a guiding question in my life.

The story was in a sermon about where we draw the line when we are trying to help someone find their way away from sin and toward a relationship with God. The person in the story, we will call him Ted, had been addicted to alcohol. When Ted gave his life to Jesus and started following Biblical principles, he filled the need alcohol was filling with God’s love and guidance.

After some time had passed, Ted ran into an old drinking buddy, we will call Mark, at the grocery store. Mark mentioned he had not seen Ted at the bar they used to frequent for some time now. Ted said he started going to church and gave up drinking. Mark told Ted that they should meet at the bar that night and Mark would buy Ted a sandwich and maybe just one drink for old times’ sake.

Chuck Swindoll said these are the slippery slopes we are challenged with. Ted wanted to spend time with Mark to share what Jesus had done for him. However, when Ted went to an AA meeting and  introduce himself, as the custom in AA, Ted would say, “Hello I am Ted. I am an alcoholic.” Ted was aware of his weakness.

In the glove analogy, Ted is the glove and “sharing a drink for old times’ sake” with Mark is the mud. Ted will not make the mud “glovy” by going back to the bar. He needs to invite Mark to a different type of setting that is not on the edge of a slippery slope, if he wants to help Mark and stay away from temptation.

The Apostle Paul talked about the “thorn in his flesh that Satan used to tempt him”. We all have a weakness. God put it there to show us our need for Him to overcome these areas of weakness with His grace. Once we become a Christian, the Holy Spirit can give us strength to resist the weakness, if we ask Him to. However, it is our responsibility to stay away from the slippery slopes that Satan can use to draw us back into sin.

We all know our weakness. It can be physical or mental. It can involve a type of place, a person or group of people, a type of movie, a type of music. The list goes on and on, but we know our particular weakness. The farther we stay away from the area of temptation, the less likely that our “glove will become muddy”.