Cosmic Traffic Cop?
Theme of the Week: Both Kind and Stern
Monday, August 25, 2008
 1 of 1
Key Bible Verse: O Lord, shouldn't I hate those who hate you? Shouldn't I despise those who resist you? (Psalm 139:21). Bonus Reading: 1 Peter 4:17-18
I confess that my sense of justice is keenest when I'm driving. Speeders, weavers, and tailgaters earn my wrath. When someone buzzes past me doing 90, I nurture the hope that there's a police car just around the bend. Of course it seems there never is. The only time I see a traffic cop is when I've lost concentration and let my speed edge upward.
And as long as I'm confessing, let me add that I'm a hypocrite. I'll rant about someone doing 90 in a 55-mph zone while I'm doing 65. So I'm guilty too, just not as guilty as the objects of my wrath.
Morally speaking, we want God to be a traffic cop, punishing evil and letting us good folks retake the highways. We get upset when it seems that he's spending his time at the donut shop and letting scofflaws go free.
The problem is we have a blind spot. We want cops to race after the speeders with sirens blaring, but only those who are going faster than we are. The truth is that virtually everyone is exceeding the posted speed limit. If we had our wish, and traffic cops were perfectly vigilant, we'd get some tickets ourselves.
And if God zapped sinners on the spot, as we often expect he should, then we'd be hurting.
—Randy Peterson in Angry with God
My Response: If God were a cop, I'd be ticketed for ____.
Adapted from Angry with God (Piñon, 2000) by permission.
Copyright © 2008 by the author or Christianity Today International/Men of Integrity magazine.
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Deliver me, God, from an easy familiarity that fails to recognize Your overwhelming power and hatred of sin.
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