Driver Beware!

This morning I read some statistics that are interesting - and highly relevant - but not surprising. Texting while driving dramatically increases the likelihood of getting into an accident.  Through the use of continual video surveillance over six million miles, The Virginia Tech Transportation Institute found that "when drivers of heavy trucks texted, their collision risk was 23 times greater than when not texting."  They also found that "dialing a cell phone and using or reaching for an electronic device increased risk of collision about 6 times in cars and trucks."

What is the average length of time that drivers take their eyes off the road while looking at their devices?  About five seconds.  That's pretty scary, when you consider that in five seconds a vehicle going 55 mph can cover more than a length of a football field!  

We have three drivers in our family and a fourth one waiting in the wings.  Given that Massachusetts has not yet outlawed the use of hand-held devices while driving (except in Brookline) provided that at least one hand is on the steering wheel, statistics such as this make me nervous.  My wife has already been on the receiving end of an accident caused by a driver who got distracted while using her cell phone.  We must exercise extreme caution while driving - not just so that we're not distracted but also because we know that other drivers will be!

To show you how dangerous talking on a cell phone can be, I know of one driver who, while talking on his Blackberry, was driving less than 10 miles per hour with no other vehicles in sight.  Yet he still got into an accident.  How?  He got hit with my golf ball!  The man was my uncle!  He was on the receiving end of a beautiful five-wood I hit right down the fairway.  Of all the places my ball could have gone, it landed in a 1.5" by 3" area about four feet off the ground 200 yards in front of me.  It hit my uncle's phone, which he happened to be using at the time!  Thankfully he was okay.  I wish I could say the same for his brand new Blackberry.

All that to say that from a human standpoint we need to be alert and discerning drivers.  Yet ultimately, from a theological standpoint, we know that God is in control.  He superintends all that happens on earth, including the path of every car ... and golf ball!  So we exercise prudence while trusting in His providence.

Golf, anyone?

Looking for Love in All the Right Places

For the last little while, I along with the other elders in my church have been reading through the inspirational classic, Hudson Taylor's Spiritual Secret.  From his early life in England, through the founding of the China Inland Mission, to reaching millions of lost Chinese for Christ, Hudson Taylor's life was one of profound faith that brought great glory to God.  Taylor's legacy lives on in the hearts and experiences of those who discover his "spiritual secret."

What was his secret?  It was "drawing for every need, temporal or spiritual, upon 'the fathomless wealth of Christ.'"  The book basically guides the reader through Hudson's many trials, the stretching of his faith, his spiritual wrestlings, fears, circumstances, and opportunities.  We see that he was "a man with a nature like ours" (James 5:17), subject to all the common experiences, challenges, and disappointments of life.  Yet what made Hudson so different from most Christians is that he really believed the promises of God and drew upon his riches in Christ for everything in life.  He not only trusted God, but he also treasured God above all else and wanted His will - nothing more, nothing less, nothing else.

It's amazing to see how this governing principle for Hudson Taylor's life played out in the Lord's provision of a wife.  Upon coming to China with her family, Maria met Hudson,

who impressed her as having longings like her own after holiness, usefulness, nearness to God.  He was different from others - not more gifted or attractive, though he was bright and pleasing and full of quiet fun, but with a something about him that made her feel rested and understood. He seemed to live in such a real world and to have such a real, great God.  Though she saw but little of him it was a comfort to know that he was near, and she was startled to find how much she missed him [when he had to leave, and how joyful she was when he returned]....

Perhaps it was this that opened her eyes to the feeling with which she was beginning to regard him.  At any rate she soon knew and with her sweet true nature did not try to hide it from her own heart and God.  There was no one else to whom she cared to speak about him, for others did not always see in him what she saw.  They disliked his wearing Chinese dress, and did not approve of his making himself so entirely one with the people.  His Chinese dress - how she loved it!  or what it represented, rather, of his spirit.

Hudson was drawn to her as well.  After a period of testing, praying, and waiting on the Lord, they "were openly engaged."  A few days before he was to be wed to Maria, Hudson wrote in a note to his mother, 

I have never felt in better health or spirits in my life....  God has been good to us.  He has indeed answered our prayer....  Oh, may we walk with Him and serve Him more faithfully.  I wish you knew my Precious One.  She is such a treasure!  She is all that I desire.

Then, six weeks later, he wrote:

Oh, to be married to the one you do love, and love most tenderly and devotedly . . . that is bliss beyond the power of words to express or imagination conceive.  There is no disappointment there.  And every day as it shows more of the mind of your Beloved, when you have such a treasure as mine, makes you only more proud, more happy, more humbly thankful to the Giver of all good for this best of earthly gifts.

Indeed.  "Houses and riches are an inheritance from fathers, but a prudent wife is from the LORD" (Proverbs 19:14). 

As I consider this beautiful story from Hudson Taylor's life (and there is much more to it than space permitted me to share here), I am reminded of how important it is for me myself to rely on the Lord in every facet of life, and also as a parent to teach my children to do the same, especially when it comes to marriage.  Specifically, I have come to see how important it is to emphasize the following:

1. Who you are on the inside is much more important than what you look like on the outside.
2. Seek the Lord, and let the Lord seek you a mate.  Then you will truly be "a match made in heaven" and know the deepest joys of marital love.
3. All things come to those who wait, provided you are waiting on the Lord and wanting only God's best!

May God help us to take these lessons to heart!

Real Confession

First John 1:9 is a well-known and precious verse to believers:  "If we confess our sins, He [God] is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness."  Confession is to be a key component to our prayers, as our Lord Jesus Himself taught us in the model prayer:  "Forgive us our sins..." (Luke 11:3; cf. Matt. 6:12).

Every day I confess my sins to God.  I acknowledge to Him any known transgressions, thank the Lord for His atoning grace, and claim His promise that "the blood of Jesus Christ cleanses us from all sin" (1 John 1:7).  Like David, I ask the Lord to "renew a steadfast spirit within me" (Psalm 51:10).

Yet the other day I came across a written prayer that convinced me that I sin far more often than I think I do, and that I don't devote sufficient time to healthy introspection, asking the Lord to search my heart and to reveal any - and all - wicked ways in me.  The following anonymous prayer, simply entitled Sins, was penned by one who had an acute sensitivity to sin and made a properly thorough confession to God:

Merciful Lord,

Pardon all my sins of this day, week, year, all the sins of my life,

sins of early, middle, and advanced years,

of omission and commission,

of morose, peevish and angry tempers,

of lip, life and walk,

of hard-heartedness, unbelief, presumption, pride,

of unfaithfulness to the souls of men,

of want [lack] of bold decision in the cause of Christ,

of deficiency in outspoken zeal for his glory,

of bringing dishonour upon thy great name,

of deception, injustice, untruthfulness

in my dealings with others,

of impurity in thought, word and deed,

of covetousness, which is idolatry,

of substance unduly hoarded, improvidently squandered,

not consecrated to the glory of thee, the great Giver;

sins in private and in the family,

in study and recreation, in the busy haunts of men,

in the study of thy Word and in the neglect of it,

in prayer irreverently offered and coldly withheld,

in time misspent,

in yielding to Satan's wiles,

in opening my heart to his temptations,

in being unwatchful when I know him nigh,

in quenching the Holy Spirit;

sins against light and knowledge,

against conscience and the restraints of thy Spirit,

against the law of eternal love.

Pardon all my sins, known and unknown,

felt and unfelt,

confessed and not confessed,

remembered or forgotten.

Good Lord, hear; and hearing, forgive.

- The Valley of Vision:

Puritan Prayers and Devotions

Certainly there is such a thing as morbid introspection that leads to spiritual depression.  It's been rightly said that for every look you take at yourself; take ten looks at Christ.  Nevertheless, the more we understand the quantity and magnitude of our sins and failures, the more we truly appreciate, value and prize the free and full forgiveness that God provides in and through His Son Jesus Christ.

God help us to grow in our awareness of sin, that we might excel in our praise of His grace.