A friend of mine just recently got a ticket for speeding. This is the second ticket that my friend has received…but the first for speeding.
When I was talking to this person the question came up? “Why me? Why couldn’t the guy stop the three other cars in front of me going the same speed? I was only following traffic.”
The first ticket my friend received was for not fully stopping at a stop sign. Now, every time they come to that stop sign that person sits at the stop sign for a good minute. Why? I’m guessing to prove a point to the invisible police that they have fully stopped at a stop sign.
It’s funny how we don’t seem to want to take responsibility for our actions…we always tend to blame it on somebody else or other circumstances in our lives. “Well officer I didn’t know the roads here…so I wasn’t fully prepared for that stop sign”..(even though they have been down that road at least fifteen times in the course of two years….and let’s not mention the fact that it’s a stop sign…which is a universal language to STOP…completely..it’s the L.A.W.) or “I wasn’t familiar with the way things are done around here”…or “well that’s how I did it last time”.
Excuses…all of them. Blaming everybody else but ourselves.
I’m to blame…I do it all the time. “Wasn’t me. Wasn’t my fault.”
And if that weren’t enough: there’s the lesson on forgiveness.
Oh we all know the rule…we need to forgive others. We know it…we’ve been taught it since we were little.
However, I’m talking about the other forgiveness. When WE are FORGIVEN.
My friend has gone and paid those two tickets. Does that mean that they now completely stop at every stop sign or go the speed limit?
OF COURSE NOT…for we are not that bright!
We only learn the lesson long enough to forget it…(usually). In fact I have seen this person just barely stop at stop signs and going about fifteen above the speed limit other times.
Why?
I think it’s because we know we have been forgiven…our fine has been paid…so let’s pretend it never happened. “As long as I can’t see it sitting in front of me on that green legal paper then it’s not real”
Right?
I think the same works with our relationship with God.
We do something. We know it’s wrong in His eyes. We ask for forgiveness. We are TRULY TRULY sorry. God forgives us. (1 John 1:9)
Then most times what happens?
We go out and do it again. Sometimes not on purpose…but in the back of our mind we know that God will forgive us again.
We go back to the same old routine…we feel bad…apologize..God forgives us.
So when does it end?
Before you send me nasty emails…I know God will always forgive us. I understand that. But my question goes deeper.
When will we stop pushing the limits? When will we stop hurting him?
When do WE start taking the blame, stop doing the wrong things we are doing and embrace the right things?
When is enough, enough?
Laura
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