Thursday-Over the Edge
- Chet Gladkowski
- May 31
- 4 min read
Updated: Jun 5
if he condemned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah by burning them to ashes, and made them an example of what is going to happen to the ungodly; and if he rescued Lot, a righteous man, who was distressed by the depraved conduct of the lawless (for that righteous man, living among them day after day, was tormented in his righteous soul by the lawless deeds he saw and heard)
2 Peter 2:6-8
We all get to that point. Where we come to the edge of a cliff and we’re about to go over the edge. You know, when you just can’t stand it anymore. We’ve gone through something for some time. Even when nothing changes, it feels like it just keeps getting worse and worse.
Last night I had a dream where I was stuck in a hotel and there was no way to get home. My car didn’t work, and no one would help me. I asked all my friends and family to come and pick me up, but they all had excuses. I know in my head that it was only a dream, but I woke up lonely and frustrated.
I’m not going to ask if this has ever happened to you. If you’ve got a pulse, then you’ve been annoyed to the point of giving up. Sometime in your life you went over the edge. You probably even quoted Popeye, “That's all I can stands. I can't stands no more[1]!
Peter reminds us that this even happens to people that are following The Lord. They are frustrated and angered by the way people are acting. How they treat others and live with total rejection of who God is and all he’s done for them.
In this short section, Peter writes “righteous” three times. That’s a lot of righteousness to be throwing around so quickly. A righteous person is someone that stands for God and against anyone on the other side. They refuse to change their minds or life even when pressured by their surroundings, friends, or neighbors.
And when a righteous person comes in contact with evil, they’re never comfortable. It never sits well with them. They want to get out and separate themselves from the wickedness that so close. It makes them so uneasy that they’ll do anything. Peter tells us that when this happens, they experience two things.
Distressed. The pressure of the surrounding people and evil drains all the energy out of them. It wears them down. They become exhausted to the point of falling down. They are so impacted by all this evil that they’re suffering and in pain.
Torment. Even though no one hits them physically, they feel like they are being tortured. They see and hear all the evil around them and it’s like someone’s punching them in the gut. That sharp pieces of glass are being jammed into their eyes.
Sometimes this distress and torment just happen. We’ve done nothing to cause it. The situation and people come around and dump all their evil around and on us. Like that memorable scene from Apollo 13 where Kevin Bacon yells, “This is not my fault[2]!” Life happens and we get stuck with it.
But there are those times when we are responsible for our pain. Like Lot, we make choices that turn out all wrong. Our selfish attitudes are the start of our distress and torment. We think about things and turn down the road. And that road leads us into evil and pain.
I think about how my arrogance and selfishness resulted in being fired from companies. Yes, I probably could blame it on the economy, but at the heart of it was my hard heart. And if it was only me, that would be one thing. But that led to pain for my family. Yes, God was kind through this, but it caused the ones I love so much pain as we had to leave many good friends and go to an unknown place.
It would be one thing if distress and torment came for a day and then left. Or maybe they came for a weekend and left first thing Monday morning. Even better would be if they came with an expiration date on the side. This way, we could hold on because we knew they’d be leaving on a certain date and time.
But it’s the “day after day” that really gets to us. We wake up and hope distress and torment have left, but they’re right there in your kitchen. Waiting for you as you get your first cup of coffee. Or they’re sitting in your car to go with you to work.
It’s more than just comforting to know that Jesus got pushed to the edge while he walked on this earth. He got really frustrated with his disciples[3]. He was really angry at the spiritual leaders[4].
We have a savior who understands our weakness. And because Jesus has been tempted just like we are but did not sin, we can go to God with confidence. We don’t hide from God but run to him for mercy and grace. To help us in our time of need[5]. That’s what we need to do when life takes us over the edge. Run to Jesus.
Noodling Questions
Describe the last time you felt like you were going over the edge.
Why do we want to yell “It’s not my fault?” Explain.
How can we run to Jesus when life’s falling apart?
[3] Mark 8:17,18
[4] Matthew 23:13-39
[5] Hebrews 4:15,16
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