The Wise Thing

Andy Stanley is a great pastor and leader. One of my favorite teachings of his was a six-week series that focused on a single question: “What is the wise thing to do?” Think about it: What if you stopped before making any significant decision in your life and asked yourself, “What is the wise thing to do?”

This month our focus is on Affairs and God’s Redemption. My heart breaks every week as I hear story after story from couples who started their marriage out great but then ended up in my office because one spouse crossed the line and is in the middle of an affair. I often hear the following response from the one who crossed the line: “I don’t know how I got here.” You see, no one I know has ever started their day by saying, “I think I’ll have an affair today.”

I recently sat with a husband who was losing everything because of an affair. As we talked, he traced back through a series of decisions he had made over the past twelve months. Decision number one occurred when he joined a new running group to train for a marathon. At the group’s first meeting to agree on dates, distances, and times to run, he noticed a woman on the other side of the room and was immediately attracted to her. As soon as the meeting ended, he made his way over to her and introduced himself. He thought,That’s harmless. Then he found himself making sure he was running next to her during training runs and then meeting her for something to drink after each run. It was a step-by-step journey that resulted in a full-blown affair that shattered his life.

What if at that first group meeting—after seeing this woman and before he took one step in her direction—he had stopped and asked himself, “What is the wise thing to do?” No matter how innocent the first step seems to be, every affair starts with one. No first step, no affair.

What’s going on in your life today? What are you doing? What are you thinking about? What step are you thinking about taking? Please, just stop and ask yourself, “What is the wise thing to do?”