Several years ago, I was working at an English conversation school called NOVA. It was one of the largest schools in Japan, and I had worked there for seven years or so.
In my last several years I noticed some disturbing trends. One was that they were expanding far more rapidly than it seemed they should. Then in my final year, schools started closing, and if that weren’t enough, paychecks started coming in late.
I should’ve gotten out at that point, but it was hard because the pay was pretty good, I had good benefits, the hours were great, and I just kept hoping against hope that things would get better. It didn’t and the company went bankrupt.
Suddenly, I along with hundreds of other teachers and staff were out of a job. And because the market was so suddenly flooded with teachers, it became very difficult to find another job.
I’ve got an okay job now, but I keep wondering if I could be doing better if I had gotten out of NOVA earlier before the market flooded. Maybe. Maybe not. I’ll never know.
Lot was in a similar situation. He had parted ways from Abraham after a dispute over land, and Lot had chosen a place that looked really good to the eye.
It seems like he also became one of the leaders of the city in a very short time (city leaders often sat at the city gates in order to judge disputes that might have occurred).
So not only was he in a comfortable place, but he was also in a comfortable position in the city.
There was one problem. Sodom was extremely wicked. Perhaps Lot had tried to be a good example to the city from his position of influence. But ultimately, Sodom got worse and worse.
Peter described Lot this way:
a righteous man, who was distressed by the depraved conduct of the lawless (for that righteous man, living among them day after day, was tormented in his righteous soul by the lawless deeds he saw and heard). (2 Peter 2:7–8)
But there was another problem. The people of Sodom were starting to affect the way that Lot thought. Instead of influencing them, they were influencing him.
You see that clearly when the people started to attack his house, insisting that he send the angels out to them so that the people could rape them. What did Lot do? He offered to send out his daughters to them instead.
That’s the problem when you surround yourself with ungodly people with no one around you to remind you of God and his ways. You often start to take on the values and attitudes of the people you actually spend time with.
Lot should have gotten out of there a long time ago. Why didn’t he? He was probably comfortable where he was. He probably enjoyed his place in the community. And he didn’t want to give these things up.
So he continued hoping against hope that things would get better. And it almost led to disaster for him and his family.
Even when the angels warned him of the judgment to come, he hesitated. The angels literally had to drag him and his family out of the city. Even then, he was hesitant to completely leave the area.
How often do we hold on to things that are not good for us? It could be a job that takes us away from our family or from church on Sundays. It could be a relationship with a boyfriend or girlfriend that is not a Christian.
It could be pornography. It could even be something that’s “good” but that pulls us away from God. It could be a hobby that dominates too much of your time. It could be the internet, books, TV, or sports.
None of them are bad in themselves, but they can become bad if they start to control us instead of us controlling them.
I know for me, that has been a problem in the past, and I still struggle with it even today.
What about you? What are you holding on to today?
Moment to Moment (Bible blog) 