Keys to the Kingdom
By Carolyn Tucker
Red Pants on a Flag Pole
Many years ago, a family friend erected a hefty flag pole in our yard because he knew I wanted to fly the U.S. flag. The pole has been in need of some repair work and new hardware for awhile. So one day my son Aaron loaded the pole into his truck bed so he could work on it at his house. The pole extended several feet past the tailgate, which meant a red flag was needed for safety purposes as he transported it down the highway. I walked into the kitchen where the family was having a problem-solving discussion. Aaron asked if I had a red rag to tie onto the end of the flag pole. I knew I didn’t have a red cloth or towel, so I went to the closet and cleverly found something that would work great! I enthusiastically presented the item to my son. He took one look at it and asked, “Where do you wear these?” I said, “At home in the winter.“ I smiled to myself as he drove away with my red velour leggings zip-tied to the pole and blowing in the wind.
The term, “red flag” is a metaphor for a warning sign of a problem. A red flag at the beach means danger, no swimming allowed. Some communities fly a red flag when it’s too windy and dry to burn anything outside.
Believers have internal red flags that can pop up inside us when we’re in the middle of doing life. All too often these red flags are overlooked, ignored, or disregarded. One of the wonderful and necessary works of the Holy Spirit is to help guide us.
All Christ followers have the Holy Spirit living inside them. We aren’t even able to follow Christ without the Holy Spirit’s help. He will wave a red flag telling us that we need to apologize, repent, change our mind, change our direction, re-think a bad decision, forgive others, give mercy, etc. When we offend the Holy Spirit, our conscience hurts us and we no longer have peace. “Don’t you realize that all of you together are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God lives in you?“ (1 Corinthians 3:16 NLT). When we’re in close communion with the Spirit of God who dwells inside us, we know when we’ve sinned against God or offended others. We experience an uncomfortable red flag in our soul when peace makes its exit.
Jesus told His disciples, “If you love Me, obey My commandments. And I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Advocate [Comforter, Encourager, Counselor] who will never leave you. He is the Holy Spirit, who leads into all truth. The world cannot receive Him, because it isn’t looking for Him and doesn’t recognize Him. But you know Him, because He lives with you now and later will be in you [and is in you]” (John 14:15-17 NLT). We can think of the Holy Spirit as our defense attorney because He advocates and intercedes for us 24-7.
There’s a lot of new and strange ideologies in the world today. It’s a good thing Jesus asked His Father to send us the Holy Spirit to lead us into what’s true, right, and biblical. Without Him we might be tempted to fall for some of the crazy stuff today’s culture is sucking out of their thumbs.
The Key: Watch out for a red flag — it could be your neighbor’s pants.