Triggers, Traps, And Turning Points
We love to spend time on Vancouver Island. Every summer we meet up with friends to go salmon fishing, camping, and exploring. One of our favourite activities is to take crab traps to the Sydney pier, and spend a few hours catching crabs for an extravagant meal in our friend’s backyard. The trap is a simple concept: we attach some nasty smelling meat in the centre of the trap that attracts the crabs, then while they’re feasting, we pull up the trap, effectively closing it around the so that they can’t escape. Once on the boards of the pier, we measure them, and keep any that are large enough. The traps are simple and effective, and the crabs cannot resist the allure of the stinky fish bait!
We each encounter traps in our lives that seek to ensnare us in behaviours and mindsets that can take us off course from living the lives of freedom and fulness that God has invited us into through the love of Jesus and the ministry of the Holy Spirit.
Even though you may already know Jesus as your Lord and Saviour, have experienced his love personally, and heard his voice, there likely are areas in your life where you feel trapped, or find yourself walking into the same type of difficulties over and over again. There are several factors that can make this an incredibly frustrating and discouraging pattern in your life. First, it keeps happening, and you feel like you ought to have figured this out by now! Second, you want to live differently. And third, you believe that God is able to deliver you from this.
Let’s break down the pattern so that we can isolate the moment when everything gets tricky.
It all begins with a TRIGGER. Something happens, and it doesn’t matter how short or long of a time that you have to make a decision, but a choice is presented and it is yours to make. It could be your children fighting, a certain look, a tone, a word or phrase, it could be someone else’s actions that affect you, it could be stress, a sleepless night, a dream, shame, or any number of things. But it is a trigger. It grabs your attention, interrupts your moment, and requires a response. Now, here is where the roadway splits, and not necessarily into a right or wrong choice, but rather into a TRAP or a TURNING POINT.
The thing about a trap, is that we can usually see it for what it is, but we convince ourselves that we’re too smart to be caught by it. Perhaps we have former experience with that type of trap, and so we think that we won’t be snared by it again. Or, it may be that we think that even if we are caught, we can get ourselves out. Nevertheless, A TRAP IS A TRAP. There is something within it that appeals to us, and once we choose to say yes to whatever that thing may be, we find ourselves under its power.
A spiritual trap is designed to entangle us into certain behaviours, mindsets, agreements, and even relationships that literally hold us back from living into the freedom that Christ has made possible for us. Galatians 5:1 says, “It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.” He has already died for the things that seek to ensnare you, that hold you back from moving forward in your faith and the renewal that comes through the work of the Spirit in your life (Heb 12:1). However, when we choose to agree with anything that is not Christ, we are fooling ourselves into thinking that we are strong enough to get ourselves out of whatever mess may come later. That is pride and arrogance. Norman Grubb in his book Continuous Revival says that when we think we are without sin, that is the sin of pride. And when we think we can get ourselves out of the traps we find ourselves in, that’s arrogance. Don’t give sin a polite name. Confession and repentance requires us to name our sins for what they are. And when we do that we exercise humility, which is the antithesis of pride and arrogance. Jesus demonstrates throughout his life what true humility looks like, and avoided many triggers and traps by submitting himself to God’s Word, being led by the Holy Spirit, and prioritizing love for others. (One of my favourite examples of this is in Matthew 3–4 with the baptism of Jesus and then being led by the Spirit into the desert).
On the other hand, if we can identify the trap within the trigger, and choose not to follow the allure of the bait, the trigger can become a turning point in our lives. When we submit the trigger to the Lord, admitting our attraction to the trap, and submit to God’s wisdom and grace, the trigger becomes a turning point. This is repentance: turning away from the attractive path to follow Christ where he wants to lead us. Admitting our weakness allows him to empower us, and breaks the power of the trap’s attraction to us. Confessing our pride and arrogance, allows us to receive his forgiveness so that we can be more deeply formed into his likeness. The Holy Spirit can then reform and renew the behaviours and mindsets, reducing the frequency and allure of the triggers. And as you exercise self-discipline, He will equip you to recognize the triggers and the traps for what they are. Then, through the empowerment of the Holy Spirit you will become more adept at avoiding the traps and engaging in the turning points.
Take a moment to ask Jesus to show you an area that has been a trap for you.
Walk backwards from the trap with Jesus to identify your triggers.
Bring those triggers to him. Confess the ways that you have made agreements and choices that have allowed those triggers to become traps. Admit your weakness. Repent of any ways you have been too prideful or arrogant to submit those triggers to him. Receive his forgiveness.
Invite the Holy Spirit to guide you towards choosing the turning point instead of the trap the next time you are triggered. His ways are always good, and the turning points are opportunities for you to grow in intimacy with him! (Psalm 31:1–5)
