Caught

A whole crowd of people in this world believe that disobeying the law is ok, unless you’re stupid enough to get caught. Then you deserve what you get.

Today stupid-me got caught. Birgitta, baby Emerald, and I were running errands when I passed a police car parked inconspicuously next to an auto body shop.

As I drove by, I reviewed a mental list of possible driving errors and was innocent on all counts. Proceeding with confidence, it surprised me when my rear view mirror lit up with police lights.

Getting caught...

“Maybe it’s just a routine check for insurance and registration,” I thought. But when the police woman arrived at my window, she said, “You didn’t make a complete stop at that last stop sign.”

“I didn’t?” I said. “But I almost did, didn’t I?” She was not amused.

As she walked away with my license, registration, and insurance, I thought about how stupid I’d been to slide through a stop sign in front of a police car. But as Forrest Gump said, “Stupid is as stupid does,” and I’d done something pretty stupid.

Bemoaning the mark on my driving record and the hike in my insurance that was sure to come, I thought about how failing to come to a complete stop hadn’t bothered me one bit… until I got caught. And truth be told, I’ve sloppy-stopped my way through scores of stop signs without getting caught, dismissing those “crimes” as ok. Now, mental repentance flowed.

Or did it? Maybe I was just wishing I hadn’t been caught. Sadly, that was it.

Scripture describes the human heart as “desperately wicked,” which is a whopping indictment against us all. The trouble is, we don’t really believe it. Haven’t we done some good things, too?

But more important than calculating our good-to-bad balance is another accusation Scripture makes alongside the words “desperately wicked.” Jeremiah 17:9 says the human heart is “sick, without a cure.”

So what’s to be done?

We’re to ask God for a favor: “Heal me, Lord, and I will be healed. Save me, and I will be saved, for You are my praise.” (v. 14) In other words, we’ll never heal our own desperate wickedness, but God can and will, if we ask.

Today as Birgitta and I waited for the bad news and guesstimated my fine, the police woman returned. “I’m giving you a warning,” she said, “but next time, make a complete stop.” It was an undeserved gift, an example of grace. Whether it came from her or from God I wasn’t sure, but I gratefully accepted it.

Police car

The question is, will I make “complete stops” from now on?

 ”I, Yahweh, examine the mind; I test the heart to give to each according to his way, according to what his actions deserve.” (Jeremiah 17:10)

 

2 thoughts on “Caught

  1. So it’s not just a “California stop” (which is glancing both ways as you glide thru the intersection) that gets noticed?? 🙂 And isn’t it also an indictment of our “sickness” how instantly “righteous” we are with other drivers’ flaws? A car pulled across 4 lanes of the freeway last week, to take an off ramp, causing near misses along the way and I am muttering…”Where are the cops when you REALLY need them??” x-ray vision for others’ sins, and convenient myopia for my own. Yep…Jeremiah had it right. DESPERATELY sick….and in need of the all seeing Healer. (never thinking– maybe his wife was in labor and driving wasn’t number one on his priority list right that minute??)

  2. I would say ‘this is a ‘hug’ from God’…given the precious cargo you had on board…..and you made it through the intersection safely. We are all probably guilty of having done the same thing at one time or another…I’m sure…but having had some very close calls because the other guy didn’t even slow down, I have become so very aware of making sure my vehicle stops rolling completely. Emanuel – God with us!