Sometimes a dad has to remind his son who’s boss. Moms will never understand this dynamic, but the rules of the wild must be honored. One evening Canaan decided he wanted to test me. It started with poking my back while I lay on the floor, then he started smacking my shoulder. Hearing his giggle escalate and growing annoyed at the same time I said, “Boy, you better watch it.” Challenge accepted. The next thing I know he hauls off and sucker punches me right in the side. I looked at him and said, “You touch me one more time and I’m gonna teach you a lesson.” What do you think he did?

That fiasco ended with a full-blown WWE suplex, followed by a flying elbow from the top of the couch, capped off with a pile driver into a pillow leaving him laid out on the floor while I gave him a 3-count and tickled him until he started crying. Embarrassed about his butt whipping he started fussing with his mom. She asked me what happened and I said, “Babe, I warned the boy what would happen if he kept coming at me.”

Let’s just say from that moment on he’s taken his father's warnings seriously.

We should do the same when God issues a warning to us. In Isaiah 50:10-11 God issues a stark warning to those who believe they can do life without Him: “Who among you fears the Lord and obeys his servant? If you are walking in darkness, without a ray of light, trust in the Lord and rely on your God. But watch out, you who live in your own light and warm yourselves by your own fires. This is the reward you will receive from me: You will soon fall down in great torment.”

Yikes! The imagery of light and fire begs the question: What is leading us and satisfying our needs? Temptation and the cultural anthem is to follow our own light and warm ourselves by the fires of our own feelings, the only problem is that light is limited and those fires burn out. The Lord is the everlasting light and fire that can’t go out. Which do you need today? A reminder to rely on the Lord or a warning to not follow your own way? Whichever it is, heed the warning, or far worse than a suplex awaits.