PERSPECTIVE,
NEED FOR

A MAN rushed into the house in a panic-stricken state. His wife looked at him, and said, “What’s wrong?”

He said, “We’re in deep trouble.”

She said, “What is it?”

“It’s the car.”

“What’s wrong with the car?”

“Water. There’s water in the carburetor. It won’t work.”

“What!”

“There’s water in the carburetor, and the car won’t work.”

His wife cocked her head to the side and narrowed her eyes a bit. “Now, you don’t have a mechanical bone in your body. You know nothing about automobiles. How in the world do you know the problem with the car is water in the carburetor?”

The husband hung his head and said, “The car is in the swimming pool. There has to be water in the carburetor.”

The man’s problem was a lot bigger than what he said. A lot of us are more messed up than we look. We may simply say that there’s water in the carburetor, when our whole life is in the pool. But we can dress it up, fix it up, tweak it up, talk it right, and lay it out, trying to make it look like there’s only a little water in the carburetor.688

[Pride, Problem of; Sin, Confession of]

Isa. 64:6; Rom. 3:10, 23