unwanted

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An Inappropriate Time For Something To Happen

Have you ever worried about something happening to you at an inappropriate time? 

an inappropriate time for something to happen

Sure, that’s why we take certain precautions to make sure we have done all we can to prevent something unwanted from happening.

I know that when I go up to speak anywhere I always check to see if my fly is done up. Now I wouldn’t say it’s something I worry about, but it crosses my mind and I don’t want to be that guy.

I witnessed that happen in high school once. The teacher was substitute teaching an algebra class. His fly was down and he didn’t know it. 

At one point, he even sat on the corner of a girl’s desk in the front row. That’s when we could hardly stand it any longer. The snickers from the class got pretty audible and the girl in the front started to blush. 

The teacher realized something was wrong, went to the blackboard and started writing. When he turned around, his fly was done up … but there were chalk marks all around the area. 

Well that was it! We lost it! The teacher immediately left the class and we had the rest of our class cancelled. 

You have to protect yourself from those unexpected, unplanned, inappropriate things. 

We are in the fall season right now, but for me it is also nose bleed season. 

I don’t know what it is, whether it is too dry or the veins in my nose can’t hold the barometric pressure, but I get my fair share of nose bleeds at this time of year. 

And they are unexpected. I never know when they are going to come on.

I could be bending over to pick something up, I could gently blow my nose, I could be in the shower with the water pouring down on my head. 

… All of a sudden, boom, I start leaking. 

Several times I’ve feared that I would be preaching on Sunday morning and, right in the middle of a point I was trying to emphasis, my nose would give out. 

… Or when I’m playing hockey and get bumped, it would start.  

But that hasn’t ever happened. 

Believe me, any time you have a nose bleed, it is an inappropriate time. 

Last week I had four nose bleeds in one day – two of the them while I was in bed. Both times it was amazing. I woke up and, as if on cue, it started to bleeding. 

But the worst was on Saturday morning. I play hockey at 7:30 and at about 6:40 my nose started bleeding. I held it for about 15 minutes, which is usually enough for it to stop. But for some reason it didn’t; I had to hold it longer. By the time I got the leak stopped, it was too late to get to hockey. 

Just another inappropriate time for something like that. 

Here’s the thing: Temptation never comes at an appropriate time. It comes when you least expect it. It comes when you are least prepared. But you always have a recourse if you will take it. You can call out to God for help. He will give you the strength to resist the temptation. 

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: What inappropriate thing has happened to you? Leave your comments and questions below.

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Prerequisites Get Us To What We Really Want

Prerequisites are often necessary, but usually unwanted.

prerequisites get us to what we really want

The whole premise of a prerequisite is that you can’t do what you want to do until you do something else. 

When you were in school you had prerequisite classes that needed to be taken so that you could take a course that would get you to graduation. 

… Oh, and didn’t it bug you when the prerequisite wasn’t offered that semester. So you had to further delay taking the course you really needed or wanted to take? 

Well, prerequisites are not just found in school, and the ones found in life are also not that enjoyable.

A prerequisite keeps you from getting to what you really want. It’s like a roadblock that stands in the way of you enjoying something you are looking forward to.

In life a prerequisite can be anything that forces you to do something you don’t really want to do or take the time to do, in order to get to that thing you really want to do. 

For example, suppose you were really looking forward to going on a vacation. It’s the day you are leaving; you are packed and ready to go. 

But you can’t just leave; you still have a meeting you have to attend. You also know this meeting will generate some work for you and some of that work will have to be completed before you take off on your vacation. 

That is a life prerequisite.

You don’t want to go to the meeting and you don’t want to have to do any more work. Your head is already on vacation, but you are stuck. 

Your mother used to pull the prerequisite card on you when you were a kid: “Johnny, you can’t go out to play until you clean your room.”

Prerequisites never come at a good time; they are always in the way.

I’m bugged by one right now. 

I’m editing a video for a friend. I’ve been working on it for some time and I’d like to finish it. 

But lately I’ve noticed that my computer is running a little sluggish. There is no way I can edit video when just switching between a word processor and an excel sheet slows everything down.

I realized I don’t have much room left on my hard drive. So, in order to be able to edit my video, I need to free up some space on my hard drive.

That’s my prerequisite. 

I don’t want to take the time. I just want to get at what I want to do. But I’m stuck trying to find hidden files on my computer that I can obliterate.

I wish there was a program that would just do it all for me, that all I would need to do as a prerequisite is press the enter button.

Here’s the thing: There is a prerequisite to get into heaven and it is to have faith in Jesus Christ. That sounds easy, but placing your faith in Christ means it will impact your whole life, your thinking and your actions. So many people just want to do what they want and not deal with that prerequisite … so they never do deal with it. Like in every other area of life, you have to bend your will to the prerequisite or you will never get what you really want. Don’t keep putting it off. 

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: What have you put off doing that you need to do now? Leave your comments and questions below.

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