'Simply sliding into sin' - Weekly Reflection March 1st 2026

 'How does someone get involved with a person like Epstein, or for that matter, how does anybody get involved in any nefarious and immoral or criminal activity?

The Bible Project have just begun a new series of studies exploring the Psalms.

https://open.spotify.com/episode/41iEa26St75Jhp4w6jWLcr?si=91a1458178aa4a8b

 And Psalm 1 offers wisdom of how to live the good life, and yet begins by saying what not to do, starting with a negative. What we read is very illuminative of a process to slip into sin. .

Verse 1,

‘Blessed is the one
    who does not walk in step with the wicked
or stand in the way that sinners take
    or sit in the company of mockers,’

Note the progression outlined here.  We begin by walking in step with the ‘wicked.’ Then we linger and stand, perhaps having that next level conversation and weighing things up. Then finally we find ourselves sitting down in their company.

Walk, stand and then sit.

The Psalm goes on to describe how to avoid this and the way to live the best life, a blessed life.

It is the person, ‘whose delight is in the law of the Lord, and who meditates on his law, day and night. That person is like a tree planted by streams of water,
which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither— whatever they do prospers.’

Lent provides us with a good opportunity to check out the path we are walking along. To register in whose company we are spending time with. For us today, that will of course include those we engage with online or through social media channels or the things we watch on TV, or films, etc.

We need to monitor our habits and the patterns of our life.

We all have a framework or structure or a certain pattern to our lives. We may have not really thought about it, but we do, for the most part follow certain patterns, the way our days and weeks work out follow a kind of structure. Work, eat, socialise, exercise, study, or whatever. This is explored in some depth in Ken Shigematsu's book, 'God in my Everything' where he invites people to form a framework on which to build their lives and to create holy habits.   

Ken Shigematsu's own holy habits are deeply rooted in his personal experiences and teachings. He emphasizes the importance of a "rule of life" that supports spiritual growth and the cultivation of a deeper relationship with God.

And we know that to produce growth there needs to be pruning, adjusting, adding in an extra support if needed.

Left to themselves vines will simply grow wild and uncontrolled and be lacking in edible and useful fruit.

As a child for some reason, I was always fascinated by perspective. How two parallels line could continue side by side for ever. But introduce the tiniest dot in between and gradually they drift apart.  

Lent offers an opportunity for a realignment. (This can be done of course at any time, but Lent seems to add some gravitas with a call to repent, which means of course going a different direction, not merely feeling remorseful.)

And we have been chosen by God to be fruitful.

^‘You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit—fruit that will last…’  John 15.16

Aligning with Psalm 1, verse 3, ‘That person is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither—whatever they do prospers.’

Time to think about where you are walking, with whom you are talking and with whom you are sitting down with.

It is time to ask for more power, more love and more of God in our lives.

https://youtu.be/JW9SkRMtXTo?si=qjc10UFBNOPOWt7_