He Knows Exactly Which Room He Cannot Walk Back Into

He has not been in for eleven weeks and he counts them, which tells you something about how it is going.

What he has done instead is get very good at being near it. He parks on the same block for reasons that are almost true. He walks a route that goes past rather than around, and the route adds about four minutes, and he has a reason for the four minutes that he has never examined out loud.

He does not go in. He wants that on the record because it is true and because it is the whole of what he has to show for eleven weeks.

But he stands outside more than a man would who was actually done. He has noticed that. He noticed it about three weeks ago and did nothing with the noticing.

And what he keeps telling himself is that standing outside is fine, because standing outside is not the thing, and technically that is correct, and he knows exactly how much weight technically correct can hold.

Proverbs uses two verbs and needs both

There is a short proverb about this that most people know half of.

He that covereth his sins shall not prosper: but whoso confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy. (Proverbs 28:13, King James Version)

Confesseth and forsaketh.

Two verbs, joined. One of them is a sentence said out loud and the other one is a distance put between a man and a place.

People usually carry one of the two. Some men have said it and never moved. Some men have moved and never said it, which is a different arrangement and it is the one being run on that street corner.

The proverb does not rank them. It puts them together and makes the mercy follow both.

You are given two verbs and not one. Proverbs 28 joins them in the sentence rather than offering a choice, and it is the Holy Spirit who makes a small grammatical detail do something to a four minute detour.

One man in the Bible ran and did not stay to argue

There is a scene in Genesis where somebody is in a situation that is going to end badly, and what he does is not clever.

And she caught him by his garment, saying, Lie with me: and he left his garment in her hand, and fled, and got him out. (Genesis 39:12)

He left the garment.

He does not reason with her. He does not explain his position or hold his ground or manage the situation with a strong argument.

He gets out, and he takes a real loss doing it, because that garment is later used against him and it costs him years.

Nobody in the story praises him for being nearby and resisting. The text records him running, and running badly, and losing something.

You are permitted to leave badly rather than stand there well. Genesis 39 keeps the abandoned garment in the record, and it is His Spirit who makes an undignified exit look like the strongest thing in the chapter.

God says the exit is always built

There is a sentence in Corinthians that people quote at each other and rarely read to the end.

There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it. (1 Corinthians 10:13)

Make a way to escape.

That is an architectural word. There is a door, and it is described as made rather than found.

And read what the escape is for. That ye may be able to bear it. Not so a man can stand nearer and hold out longer. The escape is the provision, and the bearing is what the escape makes possible.

You are provided an exit rather than an amount of endurance. 1 Corinthians 10 says a way to escape is made, and it is the Holy Spirit who makes a made door land on a man who has been measuring how long he can stand on a corner.

Proverbs says what to do about the street itself

There is a passage in Proverbs that gets very specific about geography.

Avoid it, pass not by it, turn from it, and pass away. (Proverbs 4:15)

Four instructions in one verse, and every one of them is about location.

Avoid it. Pass not by it. Turn from it. Pass away.

Notice pass not by it. Not do not enter it. Do not go past it.

Whoever wrote that had met somebody who was walking a route with four extra minutes in it and had a reason for the four minutes.

You are given an instruction about the street and not only about the door. Proverbs 4 says pass not by it in four different ways, and it is His Spirit who makes an old line about geography reach a man on a specific block.

And the psalm describes what the silence costs

There is a verse in Psalm 32 that describes what carrying it unsaid does to a body.

When I kept silence, my bones waxed old through my roaring all the day long. (Psalm 32:3)

Kept silence, and roaring. Both at once.

He was not quiet inside. He was quiet outward and roaring inward, and he describes it in physical terms, as something that aged him.

And then the next verses describe him saying it, and the change is immediate in the text.

You are not required to keep paying what the silence costs. Psalm 32 puts the silence and the roaring in the same sentence, and it is the Holy Spirit who makes an old physical description read like a diagnosis somebody recognizes.