Daily Reflections, Friday, December 7, 2007

Today's Scripture: Jonah 2:1-9

It pays to heed a warning.

Argentinean race driver Juan Manuel Fangio discovered that after the opening lap of the 1950 Monaco Grand Prix. As he approached a dangerous bend for the second time, Fangio noticed that something was wrong. The faces of the spectators, which he usually saw as a blur as he drove by, were all turned away from him.

"If they are not looking at me," Fangio thought, "they must be looking at something more interesting around the corner." So he braked hard and carefully rounded the bend, where he saw that his split-second assessment had been accurate. The road was blocked by a massive pileup.

Throughout our lives, we’ve come in contact with warnings which have alerted us to dangers, seen and unseen. As children, our parents warned us about hot stoves and poisonous cleaning agents. Sometimes in youthful ignorance, however, we insisted upon testing our limits. After one or two accidents, we were usually cured of our curiosity with the forbidden.

When God alerts us to dangers, we often take the approach of an ignorant child. He is gracious, but scaling the limits of His law will cost us. Take His Word for it—He’s been around long enough to know what’s best for His children!

Today's Quote:  Unless we accept lifelong learning as a habit, we’re shortening our lives.