Today on my way to work the police were again setting up their new device for catching speeders. It is a great deal more crafty than traditional methods and has caught many already. I am not an emotional driver nor am I a impatient under most circumstances, but I am not a slow driver by any means. Putting it another way, I earn my tickets, but this is not about my driving ability or yours. This is about warnings. Another lesson from the road, on the heels of "signs and signs".
As I rolled past it again, during a lunch hour run to Wendy's, people coming the opposite way were making an effort to warn us about the speed trap. Flashing headlights signaling "danger ahead, look out".
I usually think that doing this is polite, but I tend not to warn others when I have the chance on the road. In my mind it is a warning from one criminal to another, saying "lookout impending justice is just around the bend." I don't want to help people get away with being bad drivers so I don't flash my lights anymore. Sure I will appreciate some one else’s efforts, but I would not be angry if they hadn't warned me and I got a ticket because of it. Point of fact, I wouldn't have gotten the ticket because of the lack of warning, but because I was breaking the law. I earned the ticket so how can I be angry at anyone else!?
For this reason I don't flash my lights to warn others, but today as I drove the ironic hypocrisy struck me. In the life of a Christian, warning others of impending judgment is essential! God has it so that judgment will come and we are all "speeders" in His eyes, but if I warn those I see they may not see that earned condemnation. So in a certain context I was humbled by those flashing lights. In the end thought, calling others to repentance and warning others of speed traps are two very different things. I do need to remember the importance of this lesson for a while, let it sink in, let it brew.
Just a thought for the road.
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