No one plans to lose their footing.

The slip is almost unnoticeable. We walking along just fine and then next thing we know, we’ve slidden into a pit that we haven’t been stuck in for a while.

Sin is like that. Our breaking of covenants and moral failure are like a pit with slick walls.

It doesn’t take much to fall in.

The way we lose our footing is barely noticeable.

On the other hand, climbing out can feel like it takes everything you’ve got.

It’s important to keep a close watch on this heart of ours. The heart, this deceptive above all things core of our being, doesn’t always lead us into dangerous places with allure of forbidden flashing red lights. The blatant fork in the road is not the point of failure.

Our failure doesn’t come by making the stark decision to choose a path or act that we know to be wrong or harmful. One doesn’t just fall.

One doesn’t take heed.

The road to ruin comes from a lack of vigilance, a sleepiness or distraction as we’re walking along the path. It may even be a good path. Many mountain passes or trails to hidden wonderlands and waterfalls are good paths. Yet, they are not without their dangers.

The true fork in the road is not at the point where you make the decision to fail in where you’ve been walking well. The true fork in the road is much more subtle. It’s the moment you say to yourself, “I’m doing good.” In slinks the sneaky heart of pride that causes you to let down your guard and stop taking heed. Without the watch, the slippery stones along the path can plummet you straight to the bottom of the pit.

You’ve been walking the path well for so long. You’ve been holding your tongue. You’ve been staying off that website. You’ve kept the covenant with your eyes to not look lustfully at a woman. You’ve been doing good with not comparing your husbands failures against the successes of another. You’ve not coveted your brother’s wife or house or car or career. You’ve been managing your money. You’ve been generous with your time and loving with those around you. You’ve held your tongue when you wanted to let the hellfire loose. You have managed to keep the demon in the bottle instead of wishing for the comfortably numb remedy of that old familiar disease. Discipline, thy name is self.

Honestly, when you have had a period of time where you’ve not fallen into any of these sins and failures, it is much easier to keep that momentum going. You aren’t weighed down by the sin. You aren’t weighed down by the failure of falling and having to pick yourself back up. You can even say you’re learning to outpace those around you as you begin to run with the horses (Jeremiah 12:5).

When you have the most momentum of sustained obedience and righteous living, it’s way too easy to have your nose in the air about how good and holy you’ve been and completely miss the giant pit of failure in front of you. Then next thing you know, the reflection in the bottom of the bottle is you, not the demon. Adultery, whether it be physical, mental, or emotional, doesn’t happen in a day. Financial ruin doesn’t happen in a day. A little sleep and a little slumber of rejecting your husband or wife has brought relational and covenantal poverty into your marriage that can become a sinkhole. The effort to keep watch and maintain vigilance would be far less than the effort it will take to get back to the path after falling off of it. These sins are all slow and gradual descents into hell when we cease to take heed, lose our vigilance, stop keeping watch, only to fall into the pit. And brother, the sides of that hole aren’t littered with easy handholds. They be slick.

Now that you’re in the pit, you’ve lost one momentum and traded it for another. A momentum to stay. A momentum that says, “Well, I’ve already fallen, I might as well do it again.” It’s a sunk cost fallacy that says, “We’re in too deep! Keep going!” Now that you’ve fallen asleep, it’s easy to stay cozy at the bottom. It’s dark down there and quiet for a change. The blanket of comfort in self-indulgence and the denial of others wraps around you warmly and then you are trapped. Why would you give attention to anyone else when the pit has welcomed you into its stagnant inertia with open arms? Bitterness is a bitch and not taking your offenses and resentful thoughts captive will have you falling into the pit with her.

It’s going to take accepting the truth about your situation to climb out. It’s going to take being open about how you got there. You’re going to have to get face to face with God - and, GASP!, maybe even other people - about the ways you quit paying attention and started indulging forbidden attentions instead of heeding where the slick surfaces and loose earth were. It’s going to take humility that you weren’t as good as you thought you were, or presented yourself to be.

This short story from Lana wonderfully demonstrates the very idea I’m talking about.

Lay down your fakery and your games. The pits don’t care one iota what appearance you give off, what holy tones you wear, or how big the feather in your captain’s hat is. No one cares how much your faith can move mountains or whether you can speak in the tongues of men and angels. If you don’t have love, if you don’t have humility, you have nothing.

The deeper you are in the pit of offense that anyone would dare say that to you should serve as the biggest warning bell you’ve ever heard. I’m talking air siren level “you are in trouble!” because humility and repentance, turning from the slow fade laziness and lack of vigilance, is the only thing that’s going to give you the strength to crawl out of the pit of adultery, pornography, lust, masturbation, gambling, drunkenness, bitterness, resentment, division, witchcraft, sorcery, comparison, covetousness, materialism, avoidance, anger, wrath, blasphemy, self-righteousness and pride that you’ve found yourself in. If you’re tempted to think, “Nobody loves me!” when confronted, then you are already slipping into the pit. We need the power of the Holy Spirit to enable us, and let’s be real. Why would He give us traction and bread when we really love our pit and the worm that never dies?

If we do find ourselves in a situation where we love our pit, may God have mercy on us and open our eyes. Of what good are we genuinely receiving from reveling in the darkness of our pit of sin where we’re dominated by the darkness in our own hearts?

Keep in mind that your journey is not one taken in isolation. You aren’t walking alone. While you are not the center of the battle or the universe, there is an unseen realm of principalities and powers and angels and demons. Our pride makes us like a suckling pig with an apple in its mouth served on a platter, ready for consumption.

We must decide if we will pridefully continue to walk our way into the oven of the enemy?

The devil would love to see us neutralized on the front lines of spiritual warfare by snaring us into sin, fear, complacency, and avoidance.

Unfortunately, he is stronger than we are, and we cannot resist him on our own. Without the Lord’s help, we are cooked. So, it’s to the Lord, maker of heaven and earth who sovereignty holds the devil’s leash, we must make our appeals to save us from the pit.

“I will exalt You, O Yahweh, for You have lifted me up, And have not let my enemies be glad over me. O Yahweh my God, I cried to You for help, and You healed me. O Yahweh, You have brought up my soul from Sheol; You have kept me alive, that I would not go down to the pit. Sing praise to Yahweh, you His holy ones, And give thanks for the remembrance of His holy name. For His anger is but for a moment, His favor is for a lifetime; Weeping may last for the night, But a shout of joy comes in the morning.

Now as for me, I said in my prosperity, “I will never be shaken.” O Yahweh, by Your favor You have made my mountain to stand strong; You hid Your face, I was dismayed. To You, O Yahweh, I called, And to the Lord I made supplication: “What profit is there in my blood, if I go down to the pit? Will the dust praise You? Will it declare Your truth?

“Hear, O Yahweh, and be gracious to me; O Yahweh, be my helper.” You have turned for me my mourning into dancing; You have loosed my sackcloth and girded me with gladness, That my glory may sing praise to You and not be silent. O Yahweh my God, I will give thanks to You forever.”

Psalm‬ ‭30‬:‭1‬-‭12‬ ‭LSB‬‬

If you have a story of how the Lord brought you to repentance after falling into a pit, I’d love to share it - anonymously, of course - for the encouragement and benefit of other readers who may be in a pit themselves in this moment.

We never drift into righteousness.

We never unintentionally reach higher ground or greater glories. We don’t win any prizes for lack of attention, diligence, and watchfulness.

When the pieces started to fall together to write this post, I recalled the children’s song that sings, “Be careful little eyes what you see, o be careful little eyes what you see. The Father up above is looking down in love so be careful little eyes what you see.” When I looked it up, I had totally forgotten about the song that Casting Crowns wrote that incorporated this very theme.

So, watch the slow fade, brothers and sisters, friends and neighbors, husbands and wives, parents and children. If you heed the dangers, don’t give the second glances, don’t entertain the conversations, resist the gravity of all the easy and comfortable desires that would pull you away from the Lord and the people He has put you close to.

If you immediately thought, “Oh, I am!” then you are already more in danger than you know.

Stay Anchored and keep fighting the good fight,

~ J.P. Simons ⚓️

PS: If you haven’t already ordered it, please check out my first book, Pray Then Plow: Practical Steps For Men Who Won’t Give Up.

We live in a time of turmoil but we shouldn’t think that we are living in new times. Oh, the context may be new, the toys may be new, the figureheads may be new (or are they, as we’re about to dive deeply into), but the turmoil is not new. The warfare is not new. The devices are not new.

While there are a lot of important and concerning events happening in the world, and there are dark battles we don’t have any idea of. Nothing will make more of a difference, as far as how we interact with it, than when we realize where our own battles actually are. What? It’s not like these dark forces are solely focused on you or me.

Why it starts with our footing is an issue I’m going to have to build on later.

This deep dive is going to blow your mind.