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As I write, I can’t help but notice the three small, brown, wooden monkeys that I picked up on a recent trip to Mexico. One is covering his ears, one his eyes, and the other his mouth. Hear no evil, see no evil, speak no evil. I’m realizing that, apart from being somewhat tacky souvenirs from our trip, these little tchotchkes are trying to convey a point about how we should live our lives.
Their message, however, seems so oversimplified in our technical, digital, “in your face” type of world. If you neither see nor hear evil, does that make you a better person or just blissfully unaware and tragically out of touch? If you don’t turn on the news or log onto the internet to hear and see the horrors of the world around us, does it mean they don’t exist? Does it mean that you’ll never be affected by them? What about the third monkey who covers his mouth suggesting that we speak no evil? How many times have you thought something contrary to the Word of God? Because you never voiced your thoughts and feelings, does that make you unaccountable?
My mother uses an old Irish saying, “What the eyes don’t see, the heart won’t crave after”. If it doesn’t go in the eyes, it’ll be much less likely to come from the heart. I think that the real message isn’t “hear no evil, see no evil, speak no evil” but, as the band Petra sang in the 80’s, Garbage In Garbage Out.
You see, it’s about being aware of not only the influences that we allow to penetrate our hearts but also how we choose to internalize the influences that we do allow in and use them in both our lives and the lives of others. Should we hide our heads in the sand in a futile attempt to protect ourselves from the sin of the world? Did Jesus? Quite the opposite! Jesus was all about uncovering sin in the lives of those around Him. When he met the woman at the well, he pointed out the sin in her life and offered her forgiveness and an eternity in Glory.
The fact is… sin is all around us. We simply can’t completely hide from it. We can, however, limit our exposure to some of it by turning off inappropriate television shows, by not putting ourselves in situations that we know could lead to sinful indulgences, and by not allowing sinful words to exit our double-edged sword, our mouth.
What’s the key? The key is to simply guard your heart. What goes in through the eyes and ears affects the heart and what comes out of the mouth is an extension of what is in the heart. Ask God to help you discern what is right and wrong. Ask for wisdom. Ask for strength. Remember that man looks upon the outside but God sees the heart. You can’t hide from God any more than you can hide from sin. You can, however, place boundaries in your life and that of your family to better filter and process what you allow in.
“Oh be careful little ears what you hear, oh be careful little eyes what you see, oh be careful little lips what you say…for the Father up above is looking down in love…”
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