SELF DRIVING AUTO

               I am impressed by advances made in automobile technology. I now have “On star” in my vehicle, a system through which I can receive step by step directions to my selected destination. It will also alert emergency responders if I have an accident and inform them of my location. It will also call whom I wish in an emergency situation. It is also equipped with hands free phone calling, if I choose to use it.          

On TV I’ve seen autos which parallel park themselves. The driver takes his hands off the steering wheel and allows the car to do its thing. Already they have produced a car which is completely automatic, it drives itself. You just tell it where you want to go and it takes you there. It should be on the market within this decade. Wow! Read the paper while you commute. No more accidents and no more speeding tickets. You see, humans, who are prone to errors and mistakes are removed from the process

            To bad we can’t come up with autopilots for humans themselves. Program them to follow God’s will and they could keep us on track. Wait. For Christians there is already something like that. Paul urges us, “Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh.” (Galatians 5:16) But to walk in the Spirit would take away our free will. Too many times we want to do our will rather than God’s.

            Walk in the Spirit. He will keep you on track.

FACING DEATH

            On television we watched as Malaysian Airlines informed families of those on Flight MH370 that all lives were lost. Some fell down, shouted aloud, and responded with other outward signs of inconsolable grief. I was not surprised but was troubled by it. Of course, I don’t know how I would react if I believed I would never see my loved one again in life or in death, if I believed they would return to earth reincarnated into a person, animal or thing I would not recognize. Of course different societies or cultures have different ways of confronting grief.

            But I have in person seen this kind of reaction. Being a pastor in a small community (Reform, AL) I was at times called by personnel at our small hospital to come and be with a family who had no pastor of their own. I remember one vivid scene when the patient passed away and the family acted the same as the Chinese. They swooned, hollered aloud, beat on furniture and engaged in all sorts of expressions. Nothing I could say was of comfort to them. They were inconsolable.

            As the family was carrying on, an attending nurse observed to me, “It makes so much difference when people have faith and when they don’t.” I am sure she had seen it often.

            When people have faith, accept that in Jesus we have everlasting life, that we who believe in Jesus will see each other after physical death in the place he has prepared for us; facing the death of a loved one is so much easier. We remember the words of Jesus, “I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believes in me, though he is dead, yet shall he live: and whosoever lives and believes in me shall never die.” (John 11:25-26)

            I add the question that Jesus asked,”do you believe this?”

 

Grace and Peace