RUNNING
RED LIGHTS

Topics: Blindness; Conscience; Danger; Disobedience; Lawlessness; Sin; Will

References: Romans 1:28–32; 1 Timothy 1:19; 4:1–2

During my college years, I decided it made no sense to stop at red traffic lights when there was no traffic around. So I began to stop briefly, just long enough to check for cars, and then proceed. My stops became shorter and shorter, and eventually I no longer stopped at all. I simply checked out the landscape, and if no cars were coming, I proceeded full speed through the red light.

One day I approached a light. I had already checked out the landscape and was near the empty intersection when a car topped the hill to my left. It was too far to pose any threat, but it was a police car. That is not what changed my ways, though, because I got the car stopped and received no more punishment than a dirty glance.

What scared me enough to quit running red lights was what occurred in the split second between spotting the patrol car and stopping the car. In that instant, my foot moved from the gas pedal to the brake pedal, then back to the gas pedal. I didn’t will it; my foot just did it because that’s how I had trained my mind to respond. I had continually ignored what was once a clear signal to stop—a red light—and as a result my mind was confused about what to do.

The same occurs with sin. Our God-given conscience gives us warning signals. We can heed those signals or ignore them. If we ignore them often enough, we may eventually fail to recognize them as signals at all and rush headlong into danger.

—J. Douglas Burford, Mission, Kansas

PART 29: SPIRITUAL GROWTH