Not What I Wanted To Post, but Attacking Writer's Block

"His own iniquities will capture the wicked,
And he will be held with the cords of his sin."
(Proverbs 5:22, NASB)

I wonder if that holds for the semi-wicked?
Does it hold for those who are just making an error in judgement?

Hey, dummy: you are all tied up!

I had a dear, DEAR friend make the statement, a few years back, that if you voted for (fill in the blank) he didn't want to have anything to do with you.

It seems to me that he was restricting himself with that statement. Being tied with cords is very much about being restrained; can you make an argument that my DEAR friend (who is no longer on this earth) was sinning when he made that statement?

Forty-one years ago, I watched another friend-who-is-closer-than-a-brother go through a heart-rending experience of struggling with God. At the end of it, he said to me "God just told me that whatever you do, if you don't do it in love, even if you are right, you are wrong."

That was one of the most significant moments in my life; a moment when I saw God's power at work on another. It gave me great hope; for one thing, it proved to my headstrong 24-year-old self that it wasn't MY job to persuade people of ANYTHING. If they were at all receptive, God would do the persuading.

And I guess as a corollary, if they weren't receptive, I'd just be wasting my time and getting frustrated arguing with them.

So now, I need to do some self-examination. Are there cords tied on me? I'd better ask my gift-from-God, happily-ever-after trophy wife Vanessa, the elegant, foxy, praying black grandmother of Woodstock, GA, if she can see any on me; and Uncle Mylon, too, and my sons Jordan and Michael the Moose, and daughter Tobhiyah, and anyone else who is regularly in contact with me. Maybe I'll get a t-Shirt made, patterned after those "How's My Driving?" bumper stickers, that says "How's My Freedom? If You See Any Cords On Me, Contact ______"

Not sure what to put in the blank space there, but if I actually do the shirt, I'll figure something out.

I don't need to look TOO hard; I KNOW I have some restrictions. 

I haven't been able to review anything for over a month, although I HAVE been reading. WHAT CORD IS BINDING ME? There HAS to be something going on, because this is NOT characteristic of me.

I promise you I ain't drinkin', nor gettin' high; ain't smokin', gamblin', or runnin' around with fancy wimmin.

MAYBE the cord that's binding me is fear. When I went through the recovery inventory process, that showed up, over and over, as my character defect. If it IS fear, then the solution may present itself. If it does, then watch this space.