There's a Hole in My Sidewalk

by John Miller

Submitted December 17, 2011

Portia Nelson makes an insightful observation about dealing with mistakes in life in a short essay entitled There's a Hole in My Sidewalk–An Autobiography in Five Short Chapters :

Chapter One:

I walk down the street. There is a deep hole in the sidewalk.

I fall in. I am lost… I am helpless.

It's not my fault.

It takes forever to find a way out.

Chapter Two:

I walk down the street. There is a deep hole in the sidewalk.

I pretend that I don't see it. I fall in again. I can't believe I am in this same place.

But, it isn't my fault.

It still takes a long time to get out.

Chapter Three:

I walk down the same street. There is a deep hole in the sidewalk.

I see it is there. I still fall in ... it's a habit ... but, my eyes are open. I know where I am.

It is my fault.

I get out immediately.

Chapter Four:

I walk down the same street.

There is a deep hole in the sidewalk.

I walk around it.

Chapter Five:

I walk down another street.

 

Portia Nelson unwittingly captures the essence of human nature—as it has existed from Adam—along with the antidote for it, in one concise essay. When Adam & Eve failed to see the hole that Satan dug in their sidewalk and fell right into it, they were "lost" and "helpless", and of one thing both of them were confident—"It's not my fault!"

"The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I ate," Adam counters God's inquiry (Genesis 3:12And the man said, The woman whom thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat.
See All...).  It was God's fault. How could God expect any red blooded male to resist overtures from the beautiful woman He had created to "be with him?"  Eve was equally "helpless". "The serpent deceived me, and I ate," is her defense (Genesis 3:13And the LORD God said unto the woman, What is this that thou hast done? And the woman said, The serpent beguiled me, and I did eat.
See All...).

Thus begins the saga of human experience beset with denial, self deception, hypocrisy and worse that has not changed appreciably in 6,000 years. In the words of Portia, mankind fell into a "deep hole in the sidewalk" and it's taken "forever to find a way out" because it wasn't his "fault"—except for the few who have chosen to embrace the truth that "holes in sidewalks" exist and  accept it as their responsibility to not fall into them.

Jesus Christ famously declared to the enslaved deniers of his generation: "You shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free" (John 8:32-34 [32] And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.
[33] They answered him, We be Abraham's seed, and were never in bondage to any man: how sayest thou, Ye shall be made free?
[34] Jesus answered them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Whosoever committeth sin is the servant of sin.

See All...). This statement is arguably one of His most profound because acknowledging the truth of one's error is an indispensible component of obtaining "salvation" from it—getting out of the hole as Portia put it.

The apostle John defines the solution with the precision of Boolean logic in an amazingly simple formula:  " If we confess our sins, [then] He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us of from all unrighteousness" (1. John 1:9That was the true Light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world.
See All...).

The candid admission that it's "our fault" when we find ourselves "lost" in a "deep hole" not only facilitates a speedy "way out" it paves the way to "walk down another street"—a path of righteousness free of nasty potholes.

Do you have holes in your sidewalk? More importantly can you see them and do you have the courage to choose a different path?