I was driving to my dentist appointment in our 22-year-old car … smacking at the dashboard and center console to try to make a rattle stop … and freaking out over a new traffic revision … when about this time the heater in the car stopped working.
A frigid breeze began blowing from the vents. Brrrrr!!
Immediately the verse popped into my mind: “Confidence in an unfaithful man in time of trouble is like a bad tooth and a foot out of joint.” – Proverbs 25:19
Now that is hilarious … considering that I’m heading to a dentist appointment!
The irony of that is really funny!
The heater going out wasn’t unexpected. It has just started doing that recently. So, I was prepared! I had intentionally worn my heaviest winter coat, with its silvery insulating lining. A total overkill for the day’s weather. And entirely too bulky for a dentist apt.
That’s why I also brought a lighter jacket as well. The heavy coat for the unfaithful car heater … and a light jacket for normal life.
Isn’t this what we do when it comes to unfaithful people. We know we can’t trust them, so we overcompensate. We do things we normally wouldn’t do. We go out of our way to orchestrate our life so we won’t ever have to ask them for anything. Because they can’t be trusted.
Unfaithful people seem to take a lot. It takes a lot of patience! It takes a lot of forgiveness.
It takes a lot of caution. It takes a lot of wisdom.
It takes a lot of kindness.
It takes a lot of grace.
It takes a lot of boundaries.
The heater in the car hasn’t completely gone out for good. Usually, it will work for about half the journey to wherever we are going. When it goes out, turning the knob all the way up to full blast sometimes helps the heat to come back on … but then we are roasting with entirely too much heat! Sometimes turning it all the way up to full blast does nothing at all … and frigid air continues to blow on us. Chilling us! And making us shiver.
This is unfaithful people.
We might be able to count on them “for the first part of the journey” (whatever that looks like in each of our lives). But sooner or later we know they’ll bail. We know they won’t be there for the “long haul.” We know this … so we overcompensate to make up for their “brokenness.”
Then, just like the car heater … after having “bailed” they come back around and want a close, warm relationship with us … much like the car heater blasting way too much heat.
“Confidence in an unfaithful man in time of trouble is like a bad tooth and a foot out of joint.” – Proverbs 25:19
Exercise caution when it comes to unfaithful people.
Be very careful … and make sure to have healthy boundaries when it comes to unfaithful people.
