Yet another article has made the headlines--and has made this young preacher think. Here's a link to the article's source. (click here). Here's the story:
"BANGOR TOWNSHIP, Mich. – A father's decision to tell his 17-year-old son to get off the floor and lay down on a couch may have saved the boy from injury when a suspected drunken driver crashed into their Michigan home. Roy Rabadue told The Saginaw News and WJRT-TV he was watching television Monday night in their home in Bay County's Bangor Township, about 90 miles northwest of Detroit, when he decided to make cookies.
He told Joseph to move, and his son complied. Shortly afterward, a pickup
smashed into the home. The crash tossed their 52-inch television across
the living room, landing where Joseph had been on the floor.
The couch overturned along with a chair where Rabadue's 12-year-old son, Jacob, was sitting. Both escaped injury.
WNEM-TV reported the driver was arrested."
Wow! Am I the only one who chuckled to himself after reading this? I'm sure there's some parent out there who's about to use this for ammo!
Well, hold on before any of you starting pointing the fingers at others for not doing as their told...
We're starting a sermon series this Sunday called, "Why?" This is a relevant topic, since so many of us want to know "why" things are the way they are. In this age of information, to simply act without knowing all the facts is outright absurd-or so we think.
We have a hard time doing without knowing. Another way of putting that is we struggle with trust. You see trust (or faith) requires action before all the facts are there. It does NOT mean there are no facts, or no evidence-it just means you act before you have all of the facts or evidence.
I am intrigued at the way Jesus recruited people. In Matthew 4:18-22, Jesus tells Peter, Andrew, James, and John, "Come, follow me." The Bible says they immediately left what they were doing and followed Him.
What!?! No Q&A time? No explanation of where, why, and how? Surely, Jesus didn't expect faith demonstrated by obedience (tounge in cheek). Of course, He did-and Jesus still does expect faith demonstrated by obedience.
To be a Christ-follower is to trust in the Christ we are following. We may not always know the answers, and may tempted to ask "why" or "how," but we must accept that He knows best. This isn't a case of not using reasoning-it's about trust. It's actually very reasonable to obey someone in whom you've entrusted your life...
What God says, we do---lest we end up on the floor instead of on the couch (remember the article).
Before I finish, I know there must be some skeptic, or atheist, or know-it-all, who has a huge problem with this devotion. You're thinking, "That's just plain ignorance to accept something and act on it, just because God or the Bible says so." As an intelligent, logical person, you'd never do what God says, just because He says it. You, in your infinite wisdom, always act only on what you know-the true facts of the matter-or so you think.
If you apply that mode of reasoning to other areas of your life you'd most likely not be driving as you surely don't know everything about your automobile. You'd never go to a doctor for health reasons, because you simply don't know everything there is to know about the human body. In fact, you wouldn't even choose to keep living, because you, without a doubt, don't know everything about life.
So, to think that you must know everything about it, before you'll believe it, or better yet act on it, is hogwash.
As an old pastor of mine used to say, "...don't let what you don't know rob you of what you do know."
My challenge- when God commands, obey. This devotion may only be for one person out there. If that's you, act on what God is telling you. Stop asking why. Stop wondering how. To quote an old Nike slogan, "Just do it."
On the Journey Together,
Justin Winstead
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