Speeding

I speed. I’m not gonna lie about it, I’m not gonna deny it, and I’m for sure not gonna justify it. Here’s how I think about it. I can shave 12 minutes off every hour of driving. Add that up over a lifetime, and I’m at least a week ahead.

So I speed. And I love it.

Until I get pulled over.  Then I don’t love it, but I certainly don’t cry. It helps that policemen are doctor friendly.  But I know what I am. I am a speed lover. The minute I hear the sirens, though, a new version of me arises.

I become a speed despising, rule conscious, order-loving doctor who is extremely sorry for this one momentary lapse in judgment.

Don’t snicker at me. You’re the same way. You speed and you love it. Until you catch that black car camouflaged in the highway overgrowth and see that gun aimed at you. Then all of a sudden your foot hits the brakes and you turn into Mrs.Beaver with your mousy attitude and quick tears. Please officer, I never speed, I hear you say, I was just in a hurry to pick up Johnnie. Johnnie’s 3 and he’s all alone waiting for me in the school yard. Oh, officer, if you’ll forgive me, I’ll never do it again. Have a little mercy on me. Can I just get a warning this time, instead of a real ticket? I promise I’ll never do it again.

And for about a mile, you keep your promise. And drive the speed limit. Until the cop is no longer in your rear view mirror, at which point your real self comes back out and off and away you fly.

I know because I speed.

I know because speeding is like sin.

You’ve got this sin habit that you know is bad for you. You just know you shouldn’t be doing it, but as long as you haven’t run over an animal or killed another human being, it’s all good. And you’ve gotten quite good at hiding it. When people are in the car with you, you make an effort to drive the speed limit. You eve hide all evidence of your bad habits. You put the phone away and God forbid you ever text while driving.

Then you get caught, which you eventually will. And you’ll feel bad. You really will, you won’t make that up. But It won’t be for real and it won’t last. Because you’ve never really understood that it’s not getting caught that’s bad for you, but the speeding itself that kills you. You’ve never really understood that the policeman isn’t out there just to give you a speeding ticket and bump up his ticket quotas, but to actually protect your life. You’ve never really believed that one day, speeding will cause your very life to veer erratically out of control, until you’re dead.

I know because I speed.

I know because I sin.

The only way to stop sinning is to agree with God about your sin and stop doing it.  Sin deceives you, and it will seize the right opportunity and kill you (Romans 7:11). Have no doubts about it. There are no exceptions to the rule.

Don’t be another statistic.

Stop sinning.

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