Get Out of My Way

A slow car at a yellow light shouldn’t end with handcuffs, fingerprints, and a holding cell, but that’s exactly what happens in today's unforgettable story on Starting Right. The punchline is uncomfortable and painfully relatable: the officer sees a “What Would Jesus Do” bumper sticker, a Christian fish emblem, and a “Follow Me To Sunday School” message, then watches a driver explode with rage. He assumes the car must be stolen because the behavior doesn’t match the brand. It’s funny for a second, then it turns into a mirror for anyone who’s ever had faith in their heart but frustration on their face. 

Transcript

Welcome And Daily Purpose

SPEAKER_00 0:10

Good morning and welcome to Starting Right. I am Danny Mack, and I'm going to be here every Monday to Friday to help you get a great start to your day. So grab your cup of coffee, sit back and relax for the next five minutes as I help you start your day by starting right.

The Traffic Meltdown Story

SPEAKER_00 0:33

I recently heard the story of a woman who was driving down the road like crazy because she was late for an appointment. There was a lot of traffic around her, and the man in the vehicle directly in front of her was going about two miles an hour below the speed limit, and this was driving her absolutely crazy. She wanted him to speed up, so she was tailgating him. She honked the horn, she was waving at him, trying to get him going. As they approached an intersection, the light turned yellow, and the man stopped. Now he probably could have made it through under the yellow light, but he chose not to. Well she went even more ballistic. She began to jump up and down in her seat and honk her horn and she pounded on the window. She was still in this mid rant when she heard a tap on her window. She looked up into the face of a very serious police officer. The officer ordered her to exit the car with her hands up. He handcuffed her, he put her in a police car, and he took her to the police station where she was searched, fingerprinted, and photographed, and then placed in a holding cell. After a couple of hours, a policeman approached her cell and opened the door and led her back to the booking desk, where the arresting officer was waiting with her personal effects. He looked at her and said, I'm I'm very sorry for this mistake. You see, I pulled up behind your car while you were blowing your horn and flipping off the guy in front of you and and cussing a blue streak at him. I noticed that you had a what would Jesus do bumper sticker and a choose life license plate holder, and a follow me to Sunday school bumper sticker, and a chrome plated Christian fish emblem on your trunk. Naturally I assume that you had stolen the car.

When Our Actions Shame Our Faith

SPEAKER_00 2:25

Talk about embarrassing, right? We try so hard to do everything right and to be the kind of Christian that we think God wants us to be, and then we really do something dumb sometimes. Honestly, I think that many of us could relate to how this woman was probably feeling. Even if her actions were a little bit more extreme than most of us would do, I believe that the majority of us have at some point in time acted in a way that afterwards we were embarrassed by it. And it's one thing to embarrass ourselves, but we can feel much worse when we believe that we've brought shame upon our faith in God. And so we feel that we've embarrassed God, we've embarrassed the church, we've embarrassed our pastor, we've embarrassed our family. Let's face it, sometimes we should be embarrassed by our actions and words. We all know that we've done and said things that we shouldn't.

Putting Off The Old Self

SPEAKER_00 3:14

In Ephesians chapter four, starting in verse twenty two, it says, You were taught with regard to your former way of life to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires, to be made new in the attitude of your minds, and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness. Wow. To be like God in true righteousness and holiness. How can we even begin to attain that? Well, let's remind all of us this morning a couple ways that God's helped us with that. First of all, we just need to remember that our relationship with God is not based upon how good and perfect we are or anything that we do or do not do. It is based solely on what Christ has done for us. All we have to do is receive the gift of salvation from God and enter into a relationship with Him. God then gives us His Spirit to work within us, and that Spirit is here to help us live God's best for our lives. Jesus said that I've come that you might have life and have it abundantly. That means that the life he has for us goes beyond anything that we can ask or think or even imagine. That's the life God has for us. And when we enter into this relationship with God, he gives us his Holy Spirit to help us. It's that Holy Spirit that knows what our life could and should be like, and it's he is working within us. And the Holy Spirit helps us to build the fruit of the Spirit in our lives. Galatians 5, starting in verse 22, tells us that the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Sometimes when we hear that list, it reminds us more of where we've fallen short than what God has for us. But that's not really the point. The point is that God is there to give us the ability to have all of those things in our lives, no matter what our natural propensities are. His grace and goodness can be there for us.

Grace Over Judgment And Closing

SPEAKER_00 5:11

I wonder how that impatient woman felt after the police let her go when she went home. Maybe she was upset because she was late for her Bible study, who knows? But the one thing that I do know is that it is very easy for us to respond by judging her, but God's response is not judging. He would reach out with his grace and mercy to love her and restore her into relationship with him. So if you ever think that God is mad at you about some foolish or embarrassing thing that you've done, think again. Because God is not mad at you about those things. He knew beforehand you were going to do them, and he still loves you and accepts you. And all he wants is for you to come back to him and let him begin to work in you again. God's love for us really is amazing. Have a great day, my friends. We will talk again tomorrow. Thank you for listening today. And I invite you to join me Monday to Friday right here on Starting Right with Danny Mack.