Story by Randy Grathen
After rebuilding our house following a tornado that destroyed it in 2003, it was time for me to go back to work. I had been out of work for 6 months. Laurie found a want ad from a woman seeking someone to run her document shredding company. Her husband had recently died of a heart attack, and she was left with a business she could not operate by herself. She needed someone who could shred tons of paper documents daily in and around Jefferson City. I got the job.
I drove from Camdenton to Jeff City three days a week. I listened to a Christian radio station while driving. This morning I happened to be listening to Adrian Rogers. He was speaking about lust; how it could lead a man (or woman) into sin, especially if the desire turned into action. I clearly remember thinking “boy, I’m glad I don’t have that problem.”
Most of my document shredding was at banking institutions and medical billing offices. Banks tend to hire young ladies who are good looking, outgoing, and provide great customer service with a smile. I had worked around these young ladies at dozens of banks around town for months. Never once did I do anything more than exchange pleasantries with them as I went about my job, until today.
For the first time I started to notice just how nice these women really were. I remember thinking “hmmm, she’s cute,” “I never noticed her before.” “Gee, she has a winning smile and a sunny disposition.” I never had fantasies of anything beyond that, but I definitely noticed them as I had never noticed them before. Words like ‘beautiful’ and ‘sexy’ came to mind. I had never, ever, looked at these young ladies the way I was looking at them that day.
When I climbed into my truck to drive back to Camdenton at the end of the day, I realized what happened.
Of all the sins mentioned in the bible, the Sin-of-Pride is at the top of the list for things that God hates. When I thought I was above the temptation of lust, what I found was that for one-day God opened my eyes. He had shielded me all this time from what I saw that day. He opened the blinds and I saw things I never noticed before.
Laurie and I had been married for almost 30 years at that time and I didn’t need to start looking at these women as anything more than employees of the institutions that I serviced. I was just the ‘Shredder Guy.”
God let me see for one day what I could have been enticed by every day I was working.
The next day I went to work at the same locations and never once saw or thought the things I had the day before.
I thank God that He gave me that one day to see what He had been protecting me from. He opened the blinds and then closed them – permanently.
1 John 2:16 For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life…is not from the Father, but is from the world.
1 Corinthians 10:13 No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it.
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