I’ve pursued and purchased things I later regretted over the years, starting with a Lone Ranger decoder ring at age six. I had to send in a cereal box top and a quarter. I couldn’t figure out why Kellogg’s needed box tops, but I was proud to help them out by returning one with my weekly savings. I doubt there was a kid prouder of that ring or who loved it more than I. Grandma’s frown at my heathen investment didn’t tarnish my pride. Time did. I was disappointed in its decoding record and eventually tossed it. 

I mail-ordered secrets from Charles Atlas to make me look like him and instructions on magic tricks to rival the best in the business. My closet contained nice roller and ice skates purchased to prepare me for my reserved spot in the Ice Follies replacing Richard Dwyer when he retired. I soon learned the reality of follies and felt somewhat redeemed when Ice Capades showed up...a better name. Holiday on Ice sounded even better. Needless to say, I retained the scrawny frame and didn’t have a magic show on the strip, nor did I find skating fun, much less land a staring role in anything. But, I loved the early pursuits. 

I’ve joined the crowds that have fallen for free things, eventually learning that nothing is free—It’s a matter of who pays for it. It’s usually me paying with high interest. I’ve fallen for miracle drugs promising to make me lose weight, grow hair, remove ugly spots, and get smarter. I did get smarter. That worked, but not by the intended method. I’ve listened to TV preachers telling me that if I really loved the Lord, I would give my money to him—by sending it to their address. I even had a rare occasion when a girl who fit the definition of a gold digger showed interest in me—until she found out there was no gold. 

I can relate to Eve in the Genesis story going out of her prescribed way to have a conversation with a snake. Oh, it was a beautiful and cunning creature with promises of wisdom, knowledge of good and evil—everything. Not becoming a snake but becoming like God! Wow!  That’s better than my Lone Ranger decoder ring. Yes, she learned good and evil, truth and error, but she lost the life she was designed to live. What a loss. What a lie. What a secret to learn. What a folly. This was not only a female thing. Adam bought into it also. I bought into it. In a recent discussion of this with Linda, I called it Rat Trap Love. Goodies are dangled in front of us like tinsel on a Christmas tree. If you’re human, and most of us are, you struggle with it. We are not left to our own weaknesses. We pursue our urges to fulfill our needs, then eventually recognize our need for a Creator-Savior. He is waiting there at the end of our rope. 

I’m sharing my life experiences here to identify with you, my friend. I have stood at that tree. I often pass by that rat trap. I’ve been caught before but only by an appendage and not my neck. I pray to God and know that He will set me free when I get trapped. That’s the kind of whole life insurance I buy now, not the death insurance I purchased in the past from New York Life, which was mislabeled life insurance. Jesus has offered to be in us and invited us to be in Him. 

Here are a couple of texts that help keep my head out of the rat trap: 

“There is a way that seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death.”
‭‭Proverbs‬ ‭16:25‬ ‭

“Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things.”
‭‭Philippians‬ ‭4:8‬ ‭KJV‬‬ 

—Larry Smith