“See, I am sending you out like sheep into the midst of
wolves; so be wise as serpents and innocent as doves.”
- Matthew 10:16
For the last month, every time I’ve needed to throw away some
garbage, I’ve had to stop and inspect it. Every plastic container, every can, every
glass jar, and every cardboard box gets rinsed out and turned upside down as I look
carefully for a symbol that will determine my next move. That’s because Lindsey
and I decided that 2018 would be the year we started to recycle.
Like a lot of folks, we’ve always believed in the importance
of recycling…when it was convenient. When we were students on Baylor’s campus,
where recycling bins are conveniently located everywhere, it was no trouble at
all to make sure our empty water bottles ended up where they belonged instead
of in a landfill. But for the last few years, living in apartment complexes
that had dumpsters for trash but nothing for recycling, our interests in sustainability
were outmatched by our laziness.
But at the beginning of this year, Lindsey said she wanted to
more intentional about what we did with our garbage, and I agreed. So now we
have two wastebaskets, one for trash and one for recyclables. And it turns out,
it’s not that much work! After all, anything which can be recycled has a handy,
federally mandated symbol designating it as such. So all I have to do is look
for the symbol and sort accordingly.
It would nice if moral decisions were so easily sortable, if there
was a handy “bad” symbol accompanying every temptation. Alas, morality is more
complex than recycling, and so we have to rely on our own judgment and discernment—and
the Bible warns us what a tricky task that is. Jesus cautioned his followers
that the world is a hostile place for God’s people, rife with temptation, corruption,
and violence. For the believer, every day brings new opportunities for sin to
gain a foothold in your life. In the face of this spiritual antagonism, Jesus
gives us a twofold command: be as wise as serpents and as innocent as doves.
The natural tendency is to choose one of those directives and
ignore the other. So some go through life always looking over their shoulders,
refusing to rely on other people, never willing to give anyone a chance—all in
the name of shrewdness, proclaiming that they are being wise as serpents.
Others are constant victims, so trusting as to be gullible, repeatedly misled
and taken advantage of—all because they seek to be as innocent as doves.
But Christ did not say to choose between wisdom and innocence,
he called us to hold them in tension with one another. Neither cynicism disguised
as shrewdness nor victimhood disguised as blamelessness honor the Lord; rather,
we bear witness to his kingdom by balancing wisdom with innocence, justice with
mercy, and truth with hope.
Sometimes the right thing to do, say, or believe is absolutely
clear—but not as often as politicians and preachers would have you believe. When
your soul is conflicted, when you don’t know where God would have you go, trust
in him who is both the Word and the Lamb to help you balance wisdom and
innocence. Moral decisions may not be easily sortable—but with God’s help, they
are discernible.
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