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I’ve hit 3 parked cars in my day. The first one was due to being distracted by the little banshees disguised as children I babysat one summer. The second was due to my own inattention. The third, well I refuse to take sole blame for as it was due to the idiocy of pedestrians. While I am fully aware that pedestrians have the right of way, does “right of way” really constitute walking in the middle of the road,  or walking right behind my car as I’m backing out of a parking space? If you see a car coming, wouldn’t your first instinct be to get out of the way? To walk on the grass or god forbid, the sidewalk? Newsflash: In a fight between you and a moving vehicle, the moving vehicle has much better odds.  

Why is it that we sometimes walk straight into oncoming traffic? Why is it so hard to see the impending result and take a new route? As a pastor, I deal with people and their problems on a daily basis and most of the problems have the same theme. What I often hear is something like this: “Why does this keep happening to me? How did this happen again? What do I do? I don’t know how to fix this.” And my answer is usually what no one wants to hear: STOP. Stop what you are doing. Take a new route. Do things differently. STOP going to parties if you always do something stupid. STOP going back to that guy if breaks your heart over and over. STOP getting on the internet alone if you get too tempted. STOP doing illegal things if you don’t want to get arrested. Unfortunately, few head this advice. 

If the definition of Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results., how many of us are insane? I’m sure it is safe to say that all of us have gone insane at some point in our lives.  The Bible says, “As a dog returns to his vomit, so a fool repeats his folly.” And we as humans just keep returning back to our vomit for more.  It takes strength to stop. It takes courage to take a new route. We can pray without ceasing for God to help us, but He can’t do much if we refuse to move. If you stand in the middle of the road and don’t move out of the way of the car, expect to get hit. STOP waiting for God to “save you from yourself” and MOVE before you get ran over.