The Christian life reminds me of driving.
I remember when I took my driving lessons some time ago. The driving instructor taught me how to drive defensively. He taught me to always look at the blind spot when changing lanes, to use my signal lights whenever I change lanes or turn, to pay attention to streets I pass by for cars that are coming, to keep a certain distance from the car in front of me, and even pay attention to the tires of stationary cars to see which way they are planning to turn. I still remember and apply everything he taught to this day.
A friend of mine was laughing at me one time because I drove so “proper”. I told him that it’s just how I drive.
As time goes we pick up bad habits when driving. We forget or choose not to follow what we were taught by our driving instructors. We get lazy and become complacent with our own way of driving.
I think that’s a lot like our Christian life. We pick up bad habits along the way and become complacent with our own way of living life despite having learned the teachings of Jesus. In CFC-Youth we learn a better way from living out our identities and bringing Christ wherever we go, so why do we become complacent in a lesser way even when we are taught a better one?
I always hear people saying “oh man I can’t get any bad habits until I get my G”. Then I realized, maybe we get lazy and complacent in driving because we don’t have to worry about a test. If I have my G (full time license) then why do I have to worry about driving so safe right? We start thinking like this because we take for granted the privilege of driving after passing our final driving test.
We are given a full time license to live so why not live our life the way God wants us to? It’s because we have taken for granted the Love that God has showed us.
In our Christian life we are always tested. In the Our Father we say “lead us not into temptation”.
The temptations in our lives are the tests that we are given, the crosses that we carry, the vices we must overcome. The Lord did not allow temptations so that we may fall, He allowed it so that we may reach holiness by rising above it. In passing every test we grow closer to the Lord. We fail our tests and fall into temptation because we take for granted the privilege the Lord has given us.
Temptation is a humbling reminder of how much we need God and how His way is the one in which we should live our lives. More importantly it is an opportunity to choose Love. An opportunity to never take the privilege God has given us for granted.
Lets always remember what Jesus has taught us so that we may never become complacent to anything short of being a saint.
So if someone laughs at you or judges you for living your life so “proper”. Tell them it’s just the way you live.
