Jump Start # 4200

Proverbs 7:6-7 “For at the window of my house I looked out through my lattice, and I saw among the naïve, and discerned among the youths a young man lacking sense.”

  I was driving back to Indiana last Monday having spent a weekend in Alabama teaching and preaching about different roles in the church. I was in Nashville at morning rush hour. The traffic was tight but moving. The car right in front of me started drifting towards the left lane. There was car right beside him. He kept drifting. I said out loud, “He’s going to hit him.” And, he sure did. Traveling along at 60+ MPH, cars spun in every direction, others slammed on their brakes. I was so close that all I could do was miss the flying debris. I got through it but I don’t know about everyone behind me and what a massive traffic jam that would create on the highway at rush hour.

This is not the first time I’ve seen a crash. I was walking through a parking lot when two cars backed up at the same time. I shouted. No one heard. And the cars crashed.

But, there have been other crashes that I have seen as well. They didn’t involve cars, but rather souls. I’ve seen a husband and wife just nit-pic each other in the public and say mean things to each other and later to no one’s surprise, they divorced. I knew a Christian who loved to flirt with women. He’d hug them and hold their hands and praised how beautiful they looked. Later, word came out that this man had an affair. No one was surprised. I’ve seen Christians chase every fad, follow every false teacher and spend more time out of bounds than in bounds with God. Always wanting to see what’s outside the box, they never understood what was INSIDE the box. In time, they floated away to doctrinal error, bouncing from one church to another. They crashed and no one was surprised.

Paul warned Timothy about those who had “shipwrecked their faith.” A crash had taken place.

Here are some lessons for us:

First, God has a place for us and when we don’t stay in our lane, we crash. Driving home last Monday, I went through several sections of road construction. Multiple times I saw the sign, “Stay in your lane.” Many don’t. They don’t think that applies to them. They think that they know better. They think that they can handle it. Take heed, lest you fall, are the words Paul shared with the Corinthians. You think you are different. You are not. You think nothing bad will happen to you. It will. You think you are strong enough. You are not. God wants us to stay in our lane. This is true doctrinally. This is true with the roles God has established for the home and the church. When we drift out of our lane, a crash will happen.

Second, it is better to say something before it happens, than to say, “I saw it coming.” For me, driving in Nashville, I shouted, “He’s going to hit him,” but no one could hear me. I’ve had people tell me, “I knew that they were headed for a divorce.” My thought is, ‘then why didn’t you say something?’ We worry about how people will respond. We think we are butting in. But, if you see something morally wrong and you just close your eyes to it, you have not helped save a soul and a marriage. You can say things in kindness. You can say things from experience. You can say things because you care. It’s better to have someone upset with you and you have pulled them out of the fire, as Jude says, than to have them crash spiritually.

Third, crashes are messy. As I kept flying down the highways of Tennessee I wondered about the people in that crash. I prayed that they were ok physically. But, their day sure changed from what they anticipated. Likely, they were headed to work on a Monday morning. But now, police, insurance and rental car companies had to be called. They weren’t getting to work anytime soon.

Crashes are like that. The thrill and passion of an affair blinds one to the coming crash. Word gets out. Lies are told to cover it up. Anger and tears follow. A divorce. The selling of the house. The holidays without the kids. Splitting assets. And, suddenly, the sweet taste of sin has a bitter and sour after taste that doesn’t go away. Souls are lost. The gates of Hell welcome those who have crashed their lives on the sunny side of sin never seeing the horrific dark side of the consequences.

Crashes are messy.

In our verse today, a man looks through his lattice and sees a young man walking towards trouble. He is about to crash. He walks down the wrong street, at the wrong time of day and talks to the wrong person. And as the chapter ends, he has crashed. The eyewitness of a crash.

May we learn…

Roger