Has this happened to you?

There’s three inches of snow on the ground. You drive your car out into the road as gingerly as a cat on a hot tin roof. You settle into a slow but steady speed, nervous and alert.

Suddenly there is a big vehicle right behind you, headlights seemingly in your back seat.

He seems to be thinking: “There’s three inches of snow on the ground yet I can still drive 55 mph!”

He’s also saying to you, “Speed up or get out of the way!”

Which raises two issues:

“Yes, you can drive 55 mph in your wonderful big vehicle; but can you stop?”

And also, “Perhaps you have the right to risk your life (you might ask your wife and children if they feel the same way, however), but you do not have the right to risk mine, and that of my family.”

When sin takes control of our lives, we think we control it. We drive along life’s highway convinced we can stop at any time. But horrific things happen when we try to stop. We spin out of control, we slam into other people, we cause dismay and fear to all those around us.

Paul suggested it was like being “enslaved” to sin (Romans 6:16-19). Slaves are not in control of their lives. They can’t come and go as they like. They can’t even quit!

But our sin is more serious than that. We endanger others with our reckless behavior. We careen, out of control. We have convinced ourselves that our actions are our own affair, but mark this, it never is! What we do affects others, whether you are a teenager who has broken your parents’ hearts by your behavior, a husband who has decided he has the right to abandon his wife and children, or a church leader who wants out.

In the snow and ice, it’s hard to stop. And when living lives of sin we become thoughtless of those whom we affect.

Long ago Cain asked, “Am I my brother’s keeper?”
(Genesis 4:9). Yes, O first son of Adam, you are.

by Stan Mitchell – www.forthright.net