TURN RIGHT FOR TACOS.. 019

TURN RIGHT FOR TACOS..

Not every temptation looks like a scandal. Sometimes it looks like four tacos for $1.98.

The reading from Exodus this week was blunt: we’re always listening to one of two voices—the word of God or the word of the devil. No middle ground.

That sounds dramatic, until you realize the devil rarely shows up with horns and fire. More often, he whispers in the small detours of everyday life: “Just this once. Nobody will know. You deserve it.”

For me, that whisper often spoke at a stop sign at the edge of my neighborhood.

Most of my duties as a husband and father meant turning left: to the store, to practice, to pick up my kids late from the homecoming dance. Left meant doing my job. But if I turned right, in three minutes I could hit the Jack-in-the-Box and snag four tacos for $1.98. Nobody would know.

During my first Exodus 90, one of our disciplines was no snacking between meals. That meant tacos were off the table. And suddenly, that stop sign became a battleground - yeah, it sounds weak, but it was a thing!

Some nights I sat there with both hands on the wheel for two minutes. Left: obedience, discipline, duty. Right: tacos, comfort, escape. Before Exodus, I probably turned right 8 times out of 10. During Exodus, with my brothers in the fight beside me, I turned left - again and again.

Now, years later, the muscle memory has changed. I don’t even think about turning right anymore. I just drive on.

That’s how formation works: repeated refusals. Training your body and soul to say no to the whisper that says, “just this once.”

And that’s where this breath prayer comes in. It was born in those kinds of moments.

The prayer:

• Inhale (slow): “Christ, silence the liar.”

• Exhale (slow): “I am not that man anymore.”

Use it whenever and wherever temptation presses. Five minutes in the morning, or thirty seconds at the stoplight. Let your breath become the battleground. And when you finish, anchor yourself in the truth:

“If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has passed away, behold, the new has come.” (2 Cor 5:17)

The liar will return. But every time you breathe this prayer—or choose left instead of right—you refuse his claim and choose Christ’s word instead. That’s how freedom takes root.

Your workbench this weekend:

1. Where is your “Jack-in-the-Box detour”—the little routine(or the big one) the liar keeps nudging you toward?

2. How could you turn that moment into a place of prayer instead?

3. When has brotherhood helped you keep the wheel straight when you wanted to turn?

Homework: Write the breath prayer on a card. Put it in your truck, your wallet, or your Bible. Use it once each day this weekend, and throughout next week, and note how it changes the way you face small temptations.