Father, it has been a multifaceted kind of day! Good worship this morning, a wonderful rest of the day with Karen, an interesting conversation with a dear friend, and now trying to get a new modem and router to do what they need to do! All praise to You for Your loving support in it all!
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One thing that I thank the Lord for as a school bus driver is that I have never been sucked into the muck. Some of our county and township roads are pretty narrow and often we have oncoming traffic that is as big or bigger than we are – garbage trucks, dump trucks, even semis! For the most part, neither party really slows down a whole lot when we pass but both of us get over as far to the right side of the road as we can.
Occasionally on the side of the road, there may be some gravel or filler of some sort but usually, the ground just meets the pavement. Where we can run into trouble is, if we go just a little too far to the right and our tires go off the pavement and get onto the ground. If it is soupy from lots of rain or snow, with the weight of the bus, it can suck us right into where we are pulled off the road! Sometimes it is a fine line and it takes a keen eye to know how far you can push it.
I am convinced that angels have pushed on the right side of my bus on occasion! There have been too many times where I have been right on that razor-thin edge and not once have I gone too far, thank the Lord!
So, here’s my question. How many times in life do we get too close to the edge of trouble? Now there may be times where we are pushed, as such, and we get stuck where we are not supposed to be. On a bus, better stuck in the muck than getting hit by a truck!
In life, there are times when, by no fault of our own, we are pushed into potential sin-inducing situations. That, in and of itself, is not sin. If we linger or yield to that temptation in some way then we are in trouble.
The bad thing for many of us, it is not a matter of being pushed in those kinds of situations, but sometimes the problem lies in the fact that we just like playing a game of seeing how close to the edge we can get!
If I am on open road on the county and township roads of my route with nothing coming towards me and no blind curves or rises in the road with which to contend, I tend to drive closer to the middle of the road. There is no reason to take chances! The best policy is to avoid even the possibility of problems.
The same is true in my relationship with Jesus. What good is it to play around with temptation? We can rationalize all we want but it is dangerous and way too risky!
I had married acquaintance in college that used to say that he could look at other women all he wanted – and he was implying some very risky thoughts in regards to them – but he was fine…as long as he didn’t touch! That is crazy! I don’t know how he ended up but that is definitely not an attitude that helps to build one’s marriage!
So, in the end, don’t hang out near the edge! Doing so just may get you sucked into the muck!
Feb 23rd, 2020, Sun, 8:43 pm
