October 9th, 2014
I got my license in September. Frightening, I know. But beside the point.
Since getting my license, I find myself being told to "drive safely!" so much more often than I used to be. Initially, it kind of felt like the people who watched as I improved at my driving and finally earned the right to drive by myself didn't have faith in my driving all of a sudden. But then I had a realization. They're telling me to be extremely cautious, not because they don't think I drive well, but because it's better to be over-the-top careful than to be borderline like most drivers.
I find the same goes for following the Bible. Now, obviously, I'm not saying it's sinful or even especially bad to be a borderline driver, it's just the example I came up with. I find that every so often, I'll come across a Christian, organization, or church that almost want to test how far they can stretch the Bible to mean. "Well," they seem to say to themselves, "this verse does seem to mean this one thing... but it's a bit hard to take in, let alone follow... maybe it actually means this other thing. Yeah, I can live with that." I'll find the same sort of thing will happen on the road, as well. I'll be sitting at a red light, and sort of casually notice the guy in front of me texting. It's like he told himself, "I know the saying goes 'don't text and drive', but I'm not actually driving... I'm behind the wheel, but I am stopped, after all. I think I can check my phone real quick." And I think that in that case, the worst that could happen is you could cause the line to slow up a little because you didn't immediately start moving when the light turned green, but this isn't a perfect analogy, and obviously, the rules of the Bible are, in the long run, a lot more essential than the rules of the road. Turning left at a green light when the people going straight have the right of way, for example, isn't as bad as skipping a step when taking the path to salvation.
When someone just has a permit, especially when they're driving with a driving instructor rather than a parent, they're extra careful to follow every little rule, even stopping entirely at a stop sign before going and making sure to stop behind it even though the sign should really be another foot forward, because wow, this is such a blind turn, I can't see a car until it's right-- oh, I've been T-boned.
Same with the Bible. I'm pretty sure this is a popular idea, but I truly think that if Jesus physically watched us as we studied our Bibles and practiced what we believed, we would all be a little bit more careful about our conclusions. So, whether you're driving on the road or through life, drive safely.
~Janora Clearwater
