I took a class one time that required me to read a book about traffic. Living in the DC area, I have plenty of opportunities to observe traffic firsthand, so the book helped explain some of the things I see regularly.
One of the concepts that stuck with me is the notion that many car accidents happen when people fixate on the bad situation they’re heading into. If you see that you’re about to impact something, and it’s all you focus on, it’s all but certain that it will happen. You go where your eyes look.
On the flip side, drivers avoid many accidents by focusing on the way out. If you can’t stop the vehicle in time, the only way to avoid an impact is to find another way out. Again, you go where your eyes look.
Reading this book may have helped me avoid an accident once. I was driving our family somewhere, and I wasn’t paying as much attention as I should have. We came around a downhill curve, approaching traffic that was slowing to stop at a traffic light. The gap between us and the car in front of us closed quicker than I anticipated. I stomped on the brakes, but we weren’t going to stop in time. As crazy as it sounds, in a flash I remembered that lesson from the book, and my eyes looked left and right instead of fixating on the looming bumper. I swerved to avoid the car, spilling over into the next lane. Thankfully the spot in the lane right next to us was empty and the vehicle in whose way we just jumped stopped in time.
I’m glad I did my reading assignments for that class.
Sin is a lot like that. We all struggle with it in some way. Some sins are recurring, while others you didn’t even see coming. It could be an addiction, or it could be the result of a heart that’s bitter or holds grudges. Whatever it is, it seems like all it takes is the blink of an eye before you’ve messed up again.
Take heart, though. There’s some good news in the book of 1 Corinthians:
The temptations in your life are no different from what others experience. And God is faithful. He will not allow the temptation to be more than you can stand. When you are tempted, he will show you a way out so that you can endure. -1 Corinthians 10:13
You haven’t been tempted beyond what you can bear, but there’s another round of temptation coming your way. When it does, instead of fixating on the impact, look for the way out, because there’s going to be one.
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