Caught Up or . . . Grounded?

So there’s been plenty of buzz lately about teen idol and role model Miley Cyrus and her photo shoot with Vanity Fair. It has turned into quite the hot topic with plenty of controversy.

We can almost remember a time when a photo shoot like this of a fifteen-year-old wouldn’t have even been a consideration. They simply wouldn’t have done it. But in today’s world of relativism and sliding morals, the lines jump all over the place like an old vein dodging a needle.

I don’t know. Maybe Miley and her parents didn’t imagine the photographer—though known for racey—would go the direction she did. Maybe Miley fully trusted the adults around her and the encouragement that this would be a classy and fun shoot rather than what it became. And then looking back, with media response and pressure, there are now all kinds of regrets.

It’s easy to get caught up in the moment. Too easy.

On a less celebrity scale—but equally as important—that can happen in our everyday, more ordinary lives. We’re in a conversation and find ourselves trashing a friend who a moment before we’d never betray. We are out in a group and one thing leads to another, and before we know it we’ve compromised a standard we thought we’d never violate. Or pressures and pain that run deep resurface and derail our resolve; we step right into a choice we never imagined we’d make.

Memories of instances when I did that still make me shiver with regret. I’ve experienced fewer and fewer slips, and therefore regrets, as God has grounded me deeper in my relationship with Him. I think of Psalm 1. It’s a grounding Psalm. It gives me a vision of what I want to avoid and where I want to keep heading. It offers words to help me formulate my prayer and plea for a solid resolve rooted in the only One who can keep me grounded.

If you haven’t read Psalm 1 recently, read the whole thing again . . . slowly. Then if you want, create your own personalized version of your grounding Psalm.

When we’re prepared and rooted deeply by the “streams of water,” we won’t so easily get caught up in the moment.

Praying for you!

Jan

Jan’s recent books, Scars That Wound, Scars That Heal—A Journey Out of Self-Injury, and Seduced by Sex, Saved by Love—A Journey Out of False Intimacy talk about how God can help us avoid getting caught up in the moment, particularly with two vital issues and pressures: self-injury and sex.

http://www.jankern.com/