Slippery When Wet

Johnny is the head custodian at Miracle Hospital in High Pointe, Georgia. He began working at the hospital when he graduated from high school. 20 years later, Johnny now oversees all custodial personnel.

Johnny is a very humble man and likes to mentor his young employees. He even takes time with the new employees that are having difficulty adjusting to the demands of their particular jobs. The jobs themselves are not always the problem; however, doing the jobs safely is often the issue with most new employees. Everyone knows that Johnny is a stickler for safety and doesn’t believe in short cuts.

Lewis, a new employee, was responsible for assisting with floor upkeep. He attended to spills and was responsible for waxing and mopping the floors. Johnny took a particular interest in the responsibilities of the floor technicians. Johnny always says to the new technicians, “The first thing a person sees when they enter a hospital are the floors.”

When Johnny began training Lewis, he explained to Lewis that the number one thing to consider when attending to the floors was safety. Johnny began telling Lewis the same story he had told other floor technicians for years.

 “When I first began as a floor technician years ago, I was young and simply looking for a dollar here and there. When I would wax the floors, my boss would tell me to make sure that I placed the proper caution signs out that clearly stated “slippery when wet”. Not only would he tell me which sign to put out, but he would also show me where they were to be placed and how many should be placed in that particular area. He always said “Johnny, we need to put the signs three feet outside of the wet areas because people tend to walk as closely to the caution signs as they can.” I never understood why so many caution signs were necessary or why we placed them so far outside.”

Johnny went on telling Lewis, “As I continued doing the job, I began to cut corners with the safety aspects of waxing the floors. Then I began training other new employees on cutting corners as well. One day I came down to the second floor to check on a new trainee. I didn’t see him when I got off of the elevator, so I went to go find him. When I turned the corner, I saw caution signs indicating the floor was wet. Not thinking anything of it, I attempted to walk around the area. Instead of walking far outside of the caution signs, I walked closely to them. Little did I know, the new trainee had not put the caution signs in the right place. There were slippery areas just outside the perimeter of the signs, which resulted in me falling and fracturing my wrist. In that instance, it dawned on me why my boss had told me to place caution signs well outside of the wet area. Even though I was warned that the floor was “slippery when wet”, I chose to walk closely alongside caution instead of steering clear of it.

Brethren, how many of us can apply this story to our everyday lives? What I’m referring to today is temptation. We flirt with temptation more than some us would care to acknowledge.

It is said that “There are no falls without a stumble.” The enemy uses our weaknesses to begin the process of stumbling. We as Christians have to be aware of what our weaknesses are and learn to strategically place caution signs around those areas in our lives. When those signs are placed, we must then err on the side of caution. From a Christian perspective, this simply means that we must not only acknowledge the signs for potential danger, but we must navigate our paths safely away from slippery surfaces instead of risking a fall by being in close proximity to the cautioned area.

Food for thought… Is it wise to dangle meat in the face of a lion? Do we stand at the edges of cliffs? Do we handle poisonous vipers? If your answers are no, then why must we flirt with the dangers of temptation? Temptation is merely the slippery substance on the floor, and the enemy uses it to blur the lines of caution. In other words, temptation itself is not sin; however, it is often the facilitator of sin.

Today I would like to honor this devotional with the following Bible verses:

13 When tempted, no one should say, "God is tempting me." For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone; 

14 But each one is tempted when, by his own evil desire, he is dragged away and enticed. 

15 Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death.

16 Don't be deceived, my dear brothers. (James 1:13-16)

My prayer for you today:

Heavenly father, our flesh is weak. Strengthen us O’Lord that we may avoid the traps of the enemy. Nourish our souls with a desire to obey your commands. Light our paths in a dark world that we may continue to embark upon our journey to Your kingdom. In the name of Your Son Jesus, Amen…

By: C.D. McCloud