There were a couple of things I heard a lot as a kid. The first was, “If you keep that up, somebody’s going to get hurt.” And the second was, “If you keep that up, you ARE going to get hurt… and I’m going to be the one who does it!” Either way, I knew there were probably going to be consequences coming.
I once heard someone say, “A little pat on the back never hurt anyone, as long as it is low enough and hard enough.” A friend of mine is fond of saying that when he strays from the way God is calling him, God gives him a good spanking. Of course, he doesn’t mean that in a literal way. He’s talking about the sometimes painful consequences we experience when we try to live our lives without God’s input.
As a pastor, I have found that people often become quite open to God once they’ve experienced the unpleasant consequences of their behavior. Unfortunately, that’s the only way some of us learn. However, there is a better way. Why not stay connected all the time? There is nothing God desires more than to be a “lamp to your feet and a light to your path.”