We were coasting along one beautiful Fall Sunday morning,
and as navigator I instructed Art to make the next left turn. But instead of turning, he just sailed by. As we missed our turn I asked Art what the
problem was and his reply went something like this - "My brakes aren't
working well." Not exactly what I
wanted to hear! Panic shot through my
soul. I'm no mechanic but even I know that
brakes are fairly important! Somehow he
managed to get the car stopped (I think he may have had to use the parking brake)
and we made it to church on time and, somewhat miraculously, we made it back to
campus that evening. This is a story I never
told my mother!
Brakes are important.
When you buy a car brakes are not an accessory. The salesperson never asks if you'd like to have
brakes with that new car you're buying.
They come standard. When your car
is inspected they don’t check if the radio works, but they will check if the
brakes are functioning. No one in their right mind drives a car without brakes!
Some people criticize the Bible because of all the "thou
shalt not's." All those rules and regulations
have the tendency to turn people off. We
want to be free to do whatever we want to do.
But I like to think of all those commands as God's braking system for
humanity. Maybe he's not trying to keep
us from having fun, maybe he's trying to keep us from crashing. Just as brakes are important to a car, prohibitions
are important in our lives. They keep us
safe. They keep us from totaling our
lives. They prevent disastrous
accidents.
It's useful for all of us to occasionally look at our lives
and consider if there are actions that we need to put the brakes on. Is there something
in your life that if you don’t stop you could end up in a ditch? Maybe it's alcohol, or drugs, or sex, or overspending,
or anger. There are hundreds of
behaviors that left unchecked could end up in disaster. And
maybe you're just cruising along oblivious to the danger, living pedal to the
metal just enjoying the ride. You may
need to tap the brakes before it's too late.
When you think about it, even a car without brakes will eventually
stop, but usually that's not real pretty.
You find yourself wrapped around a tree or in some other car's
backseat. If you’re lucky enough you'll
be able to look at the wreckage and wonder why you didn’t use your brakes.
A life without brakes will eventually stop too, but that's
usually not pretty either. No one in
their right mind lives a life without brakes!
A wise man fears the Lord
and shuns evil, but a fool is hotheaded and reckless.
Proverbs 14:16
