“So if you’re serious about living this new resurrection life with Christ, act like it. Pursue the things over which Christ presides. Don’t shuffle along, eyes to the ground, absorbed with the things right in front of you. Look up, and be alert to what is going on around Christ – that’s where the action is. See things from his perspective. Your old life is dead. Your new life, which is your real life – even though invisible to spectators – is with Christ in God. He is your life.” (Colossians 3:1-3 MSG)
For the last twenty or so years, every February, I have memories about driving down an empty highway; coming back from a Christian High School State Championship basketball game. It was a long ride. I’ll be honest. It was a long ride because my sons’ team, a team which had won the state title a year ago, was cheated out of a repeat title. Oh I’m not being biased either. Before the first half was over, the two start player, one being my son, had three fouls. They both fouled out before the fourth quarter. The opposing team did not suffer the same fate and won the game by one point. Okay, you can tell I still have some stuff to let go of, so I better take it to the Lord and apply yesterday’s meditation, “The Lord Will See You Through.” I hear you!
Well on the long ride home, late in the evening hour, driving down a highway that connected northern Indiana to central Indiana, there was not another car on the road. There was not even an opossum or a deer crossing the highway. I was driving above the speed limit. It was a 65 MPH zone and I was going, let’s say a little bit faster. Okay you got me again. I was going a lot faster. Out of nowhere, a state trooper pulls out of what must have been a gully or ditch designed to hide the patrol cars presence. The lights are flashing behind me and he pulls me over. My wife, my two sons who played on the team and one of their teammates are in the car. Speeding was not my only transgression. I set a bad example about living seriously. How so? As I waited for the officer to come to my window, I started making jokes. You have to understand that when we left the city where the championship game was played, it was past 11:00 a.m. on February 28. When we go to the place where I was pulled over, it was barely past midnight. It was now March 1. So I was somewhat joking about what I said, to the amusement of all in the car, “Was he watching your watch to see if Black History month was over?” “Did he have some time of hidden alarm that alerted him to the fact that Black History month being over, there was not any way he would be accused of harassing people of color?” “Did headquarters send out a message calling all cars to let them know that February just ended?” “Did the officer know that he could be assured we would not make one move, knowing February had just passed and his chances of being charged immediately with some form of intimidation because of race were vanished?” I rattled off all these statement, not being serious, but more so in a comedy routing mode.
Is there a bottom line? Yes, there are two. I took my ticket and respected the authority. That bottom line is good. The other was not good at all, for I had set a bad example about taking life serious in front of three impressionable teenagers. Consciously I might have impacted their thinking about dealing with authority and subconsciously these teens might have suffered from my planting something about authority that Satan could bring to their mind as a radical misbelief on how to deal with authority. I pray neither was the case. There is one more lesson for all of us. We need to live seriously, not to the point where we cannot have fun and enjoy humor, but by taking serious things seriously. Everything is not funny and not all incidents are to be looked at in jest. We need to live seriously, keeping in mind we are Jesus’ witnesses wherever we are on the road of life and in whatever experiences we must endure. Remember this too, others will follow the example you set. You may get away with something, but when they imitate you, perhaps they will not. Think about this for a minute. Have a good Thursday! I’m being serious now! Be blessed!
“It pays to take life seriously; things work out when you trust in God. A wise person gets known for insight; gracious words add to one’s reputation.” (Proverbs 16:20-21 MSG)
Still committed to the climb,
Mark L. King