How Did You Think this Would End?

His father had never at any time displeased him by asking, “Why have you done thus and so?” 1 Kings 5:6

Back when I was 19, working at summer camp, I did one of the dumber things I’ve done in life – which is saying something. At camp, we had a six-foot diameter ball that we used for camp games. It leaked a little and had to be inflated regularly. Once though, when it was about 60% full, we realized that if one person laid on one side, while another person jumped on the other, it would launch the first person a couple of feet. Another guy and I played with this for about three minutes before we hatched a brilliant scheme. Finding one of the girls who worked at camp – weighing half of what we did – we convinced her to sit on one side of the giant ball. Then, we found a four-foot ledge and we both jumped onto the ball. She didn’t go a foot or two, but rather 10 feet. . . straight up . . . and then plummeted back to Earth. It didn’t end well, but rather, with some broken bones. Honestly, to this day, I can’t imagine what we were thinking. How did we think it would end? Looking back, I can see that we didn’t think. We just had an impulsive idea, and we did it.

This seems to be the tone of today’s passage, which tells of Adonijah, one of David’s sons, who attempted to make himself king in David’s place. David had intended for Solomon to succeed him, but it’s no surprise that the succession of his throne didn’t go as planned. David had 19 sons with eight different women. In today’s passage, we’re told that David never disciplined Adonijah, allowing him to grow up inheriting everything, while never hearing the word no. How did David think this would end? Honestly, I don’t get the impression that he thought about it. I think he wanted eight wives and so he took eight wives. I think he was too lazy or too preoccupied to discipline his sons and so, they grew up entitled. Frankly, it would have been shocking if there was no conflict in choosing the next king of Israel.

I am still an impulsive person. I want to do something, and I do it. Recovery though, has meant learning to think things through. How will this end? Then, I must decide that I care more about tomorrow than I care about right now. Honestly, I still struggle with this. I know that when tomorrow comes, I’ll be glad that I said no to that donut today. Right now, though, I just want the donut. Faith and recovery though, mean learning to say no to my impulsive nature, think things through, and do the right thing, so that later I don’t find myself asking, How did I think this was doing to end?