I remember a certain dream-like state I endured as a child living in Indiana.  My parents were grain & livestock farmers, so we lived in what was called the “farmhouse.”  It was fairly large house (a full basement, a main floor, and a second story).  It was on the second floor where my sister and I found ourselves each night because that’s where our bedrooms existed.  In the center of the farmhouse was a set of stairs—one stairway led up and the other stairway led down—thus, there was plenty of room in the house to roam.

Now, go with me (in your mind) up the center stairway to the top landing, and that’s where we find my bedroom (it was sort-of a pass-through room).  Then after passing through my room, walk toward the chimney that extended from the fireplace on the main floor and led to the rooftop.  Walk around the brick chimney and go left.  There, we will find a large bedroom, my older sister’s bedroom (and one that I shared on those cold Indiana nights).  This is where my story begins.

Believe me; being lost in your own bedroom, inside a home you know so well, is well—just silly, but I have been there—LOST—so, it exists.  Lostness is a real place.

The middle of the night came, my child-size bladder woke me, and I knew that I needed to make the long walk down the flight of stairs to the toilet located on the main floor.  No nightlights illuminated the bedroom, the stairway, the “formal” living room, or the short hallway.  This was twenty-plus years BEFORE the existence of cell phones, so there was no phone flashlight to help light the way.

I was on my own.

Therefore, walking like a Zombie with my arms held out in front of me, hopefully helping me avoid a broken nose, I begin to make my way across my sister’s large bedroom toward the door that leads toward the staircase.  That’s when I bumped into the first bedroom wall.

Now, stop right here, go ahead. LAUGH.  It is a silly story, but it’s a true story and one that I remember so well.

For what seemed like an eternity, I turned from one way to another way (walking Zombie-like with my arms stretched out in front of me) my ten-year-old body ran into one bedroom wall, followed by another wall, followed by another wall, followed by another (well, you know)—WALL.

THANK GOODNESS MY SISTER’S BEDROOM HAD ONLY FOUR WALLS!

Now, I am fifty-five years old, and I now live in another state, another home, another adult life, so I am happy to report that I finally found my way out of that bedroom on that night so many years ago, but the memory is deeply ingrained in my brain.  I have often pondered how in the world can a child get lost in a bedroom & how in the world can a child finally find her way out of the darkness to find the way out—to the freedom & relief that finally comes?

Unspoken sings a wonderful melody that helps illuminate the truth of this dilemma.

“God is love.

We try to over-complicate it.

God is love. Love. Love.

God is love. God is peace.

God is love, and that’s all we need.”

“Love is Everything We Need”

Thankfully, God loves us, and that dark night, when I prayed, when I asked God to please lead me out of that dark bedroom to the stairway and to the toilet—God did what God always does—He Showed Up—God Answered My Prayer.

Now, as silly as this childhood story seems, I share it for one reason.

All people face temptation.

As always, there is a Bible passage that reveals the clarity needed to fully understand.

Please SEE WITH ME GOD’S HOLY WORD.

“For I do not want you to be unaware, brethren, that our fathers were all under the cloud and all passed through the sea;

and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea;

and all ate the same spiritual food;

and all drank the same spiritual drink, for they were drinking from a spiritual rock which followed them; and the rock was Christ.

Nevertheless, with most of them God was not well-pleased;  for they were laid low in the wilderness.

Now these things happened as examples for us, so that we would not crave evil things as they also craved.

Do not be idolaters, as some of them were; . . .

Nor let us act immorally, as some of them did, . . .

Nor let us try the Lord, as some of them did, . . .

Nor grumble, as some of them did, . . .

Now these things happened to them as an example, and they were written for our instruction, upon whom the ends of the ages have come.

Therefore let him who thinks he stands take heed that he does not fall.

No temptation has overtaken you but such as is common to man;  and God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will provide the way of escape also, so that you will be able to endure it.”

(1 Corinthians 10:  1-13)

Now, clearly, this Scripture is speaking of the Israelites, the children of God who escaped Pharoah’s captivity in Egypt by crossing on the dry riverbed of the Red Sea and were led by God through the wilderness toward the Promised Land.  While there, in the wilderness, God fed the people manna from heaven and gave them water to drink from a rock.  God provided for their needs.  Clearly they grumbled, worshipped other man-made gods, and died as a generation of people in the desert.  However, God is faithful.  God provided a way of escape (from the wilderness) for the next generation of people, and they eventually crossed the Jordan and stepped into the Promised Land, where they faced a new temptation—fight against the inhabitants of Jericho, standing strong in the name of the LORD or turning back toward the wilderness, toward the wandering they endured for so long.

“Now these things happened as examples for us, so that we would not crave evil things as they also craved.”

As believers, as children of God, we are to read the Bible’s instruction & learn & avoid temptation by keeping our eyes, our focus, fixed upon the person of Jesus Christ.

However, this Scripture is also speaking to those who remain lost, trapped in their sin, away from the Salvation God provides.  Jesus Himself provided the words needed to find God’s Salvation.