Kendall the Fire

It was only a matter of inches. That was the distance between the front end of my truck and the passenger side door of the gold SUV as it flashed in front of me… frightening collision averted, even if only by a hair. How did it come to pass? Let me see if I can explain it. First, you must know that a gentle rain had been falling for about 30 minutes… not enough to wash away all the oils and fluids from the roadway. It was just enough to lift them up to the surface and make the roads even slicker than normal.

Next, you have to understand that as I was traveling northbound on a four lane road (two lanes each way) the left hand lane was blocked with traffic but my lane—the right one—was clear. Thus, I was traveling at a higher rate of speed than the lane to my left, which was momentarily stopped. Now then, here is where things got tricky.  Someone to my left decided to be overly kind and let a vehicle that had been traveling southbound (but now wanted to turn into the gas station that was to my right) cross in front of us… the driver of the vehicle to my left was happily waving the oncoming SUV to proceed across both lanes of traffic. I think you are probably beginning to get the picture.

Of course, the driver of the SUV couldn’t see me and was perfectly willing to act on the gesture of the smiling and waving gentleman to my left, and so he turned right in front of me. I had plenty of time and space to stop—under normal circumstances. But, with a rain-slicken road, even my anti-lock brakes were doing me no good and I could see that I was going to slam right into the side of the SUV.  Finally, at the last second, my tires grabbed onto a portion of asphalt that had recently been installed to fill a pothole. The brakes checked my progress and I managed to miss hitting the SUV by the width of a moth’s wing that was plastered onto my bumper.

Now, I know that the driver to my left was trying to be nice… trying be polite… trying to help a fellow traveler get to where he wanted to go. But in his “niceness,” he almost caused a catastrophe for both that driver and for me. Who knows, someone could have been injured or even killed by his polite gesture, not to mention the property damage.  Sadly, I’m not even sure he realized his mistake (and will probably do the same thing again in the future).

It got me to thinking, many Christians see the behaviors of people that they know and presumably love, that are clearly out of alignment with God’s expectations for people as outlined in the Word of God, the Bible. And, not only does the Bible delineate clearly what the offensive behaviors (to God) are, it defines the consequences. For example, 1 Corinthians 6:9–10 tells us “Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.”

Clearly, people who willfully engage in the kinds of behaviors listed above are on a collision course and the final destination won’t be heaven, but “the lake of fire,” as Jesus called it. When Christians try to be “kind” and “non-judgmental” and “polite” and refrain from making clear indications of what will result in peoples’ damnation—are they really doing the loving thing? Somehow, I think they are like the man who was in the vehicle beside me… happily waving people to their destruction.

My Prayer: “Lord, first of all, help me to conform both my actions and attitudes to your Holy Word. Second, help me to love others enough to honestly communicate even the hard truths of your Word to people I encounter. May your love so abound in me that, even when I share something that may seem confrontational or controversial, they can see that it is coming—not from a place of self-righteous condemnation—but from a place of genuine concern for their eternal souls and from a place of compassion, Amen.”