God and parking places

God uses a wide variety of means and things to speak to us, and today He used a parking space. The lot at work that I park in has 2 rows of parking spaces facing each other. One row is against a hill and has another lot at the top of that hill, and the other row faces the road going through the hospital grounds. That is where I park, always backing in. This morning - and not for the first time -  I faced a small dilemma I have faced before. There were two vehicles parked in that row. The first space is extra wide - it is by the entrance and they had more space than needed for a parking place, and that person had parked far to the side away from the painted line toward the entrance, leaving a huge space between his vehicle and the parking space next to him. So the next car, instead of parking inside of the white lines, parked well over the line towards this vehicle. Then I come along and there is a huge space between the second car in and the third parking space that I am going to back into. Hence the dilemma:

Do I park over the line to my left so I am parked at the normal space between parked cars, or do I park in between the parking lines leaving a huge space between my car and the car beside me? If I park between the lines like you normally would, will that cause people to look at my car and wonder why I left such a large amount of space between my car and the car beside me? If I straddle the line as the car did to my left so I am parked at a normal distance from them, what will the car that parks on my right do? Will they also straddle the line? And the next car and the next until no one is parking in between the lines because of car #2?

  After a few seconds of pondering the options, I did as I have done the other mornings I was presented with this dilemma: I parked within the lines, which left a large amount of space between myself and the car on the left.

  And then God spoke to me. He does do that occasionally.

  Life can be difficult when you're serving God and going against the world. It can be like swimming upstream. I know what is right. I know what the Bible says, but so many around me are going the opposite way, even those who call themselves Christians are going with what the world, society, and culture says is OK, right or wrong, and normal. Sometimes a Christian can wonder if we truly have it right..... are we correct in living our lives by what the Bible says? Should we stand firm against the tide of even Christians who are going with what the world says is right?

  I am reading through a book called a 40 Days to Lasting Change, an AHA Challenge, based on a book by the same author, Kyle Idleman titled AHA: The God Moment That Changes Everything. In the chapter I read last night, he relayed a fictional story by H.G. Wells about a man who stumbled onto a village where all of the people were blind. He fell in love with a girl after living there for a while, but the villagers would not accept him as normal or OK unless he had an operation to remove his eyes, He agreed to do so, and took a walk to see the world around him one last time. As he walked, he realized how insane the idea was for him to be blinded, and fled the village. The author made the point that the story is like the world. The world is blind to what is truly right and wrong, blind to God and what He wants, and blind to the fact that they are marching in direct defiance to His plan and wishes....... and yet, they look at those who can see as freaks. They want us to blind like them, to not see right and wrong for what they are, and to be blind to God and His Word.

  And that is what God spoke to me early this morning as I backed into a parking place at work and parked inside the lines. That just because everyone else is trying to straddle the lines - changing what is right and wrong - does not mean I am wrong for not doing the same. It just means I need to keep doing what I know is right, keep living for God, keep standing against the things that are being thrown at us and the demands for us to go along with what the world wants.

  Many who profess to be Christians are straddling the lines instead of staying inside the lines. They are going along with the world instead of going with what God's Word says.

  But God help me to not care about man's opinions, to not worry what others will think when I remain determined to see, and not be blinded.

  If I had straddled the line this morning to be like the person beside me, it wouldn't have caused any damage to my soul or my influence....... but if I decide to straddle the lines of morality, of right and wrong, and let myself become blind to make the world happy.... then I will do damage to my soul, my relationship with God, and to my reputation.

 So with God's help, I will continue to stay inside the lines, and ask for His help to continue to see in this world full of so many blind people.

In the country of the blind, those who can see are mocked and looked on as being wrong and freaks. The blind want those who can see to be like them, to have no eyesight and also be blind.