Here’s another brain teaser I read: “A clerk at a butcher shop stands six feet two inches tall, with a 46 inch waist, and wears size 13 boots. What do you think this butcher weighs?” I’m sure you got that one right away. But you must admit, although it wasn’t hard, it was subtle. We know the dictionary defines “subtle” as a change so delicate or precise as to be difficult to quickly analyze or describe. Another way of putting it is that subtle things are hard to notice because they are not so obvious. That’s why subtle ways are often used by people because it is clever, not revealing the real purpose.

Subtle hints or suggestions are often used as a way of achieving something in an indirect way as opposed to coming out and saying it as it is. This is what Satan did to Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. The real danger is that at first the idea looks so innocent. It’s almost like a small dare. But what happens is that once the first step is taken, then the perpetrator is not satisfied and hints that another little step won’t hurt us. That’s how many people have become desperate alcoholics and drug addicts.

But it works the same way with sin, which is best described as “lawless behavior”. A little white lie can often steer one on the path of lying in order to cover up lies. An unauthorized sampling in a candy store or slipping a small item in the pocket in a toy store or drug store can lead to embarrassing shoplifting. The same goes for cheating, dishonesty, immorality, irresponsibility, temptation, pride, anger, on and on. The most simple and unsubtle way of dealing with this is clear. Just take each one of these, look at the opposite, and do it.