Driving Him Crazy

Sorry I haven't posted in a while. I actually started writing this post a week ago, but things kept coming up and I never had a chance to finish it. With any luck, I might be able to get another one up in the next couple of days. Anyway . . . 

I went to a Lutheran high school and every morning, one of the teachers would read a devotion over the PA system. Most of the time, the devotions they read weren't very interesting nor were they very memorable, but some of them (like the one I'm about to retell) stuck with me. This whole paragraph doesn't really have much to do with anything, but I just like to give credit where credit is due.

The story concerns a rich man. I'll call him Gordon . . . that's a very rich-sounding, sophisticated name. Anyway, Gordon was in the market for a new chauffeur. He liked traveling in style, so he went out and bought himself a black stretch limousine. It was a fancy limousine, too---satellite TV, Italian leather seats, cappuccino maker, mini fridge, tinted windows---the whole nine yards. As nice as the limo was, though, it couldn't drive itself, and since Gordon was far too rich to drive himself around, he had to find someone to drive his new car.

He put an ad out in the local paper and the next day, three men showed up to interview for the position. Gordon greeted the men in the lobby of his mountain estate and led them to a waiting area outside of his office. He had his secretary serve the men some coffee, then called the first man into his office for an interview.

"So, tell me about yourself. What kind of qualifications do you have?" Gordon asked the man. "Well," the man began, "I used to be a getaway driver for the Mafia. Bank heists, robberies, that sort of thing, you know? Never got caught either---not once!"

"Since you want to be my chauffeur," Gordon said, "I think a test drive would be much better than an interview. That way, I can get a feel for your skills as a driver." Confident of his abilities, the man agreed. A few minutes later, the ex-Mafia man was sitting behind the wheel of Gordon's limousine, driving along the narrow, winding roads that surrounded Gordon's estate.

The roads were fraught with sharp hairpin turns and steep switchbacks and they were difficult to navigate with the long limousine. It took all the driver's skill and concentration just to keep the car on the road. Eventually, the road narrowed and the guard rail disappeared. "Driver? I'd like you to take the car as close to the edge of the road as you can," Gordon said calmly. The driver began to worry. If I get too close to the edge of the road, he thought to himself, I'll lose control of the car and we'll go flying off the edge of the mountain . . . but I really want this job!

Slowly, the driver began to inch towards the edge of the road. He could feel his tires lose traction as they dug into the loose gravel along the soft shoulder. He drove dangerously close to the edge of the mountain for perhaps a minute, when Gordon said, "That'll be enough, thank you. Please take me home."

When the driver brought the limousine back to Gordon's estate, Gordon said, "That was some impressive driving, but you didn't get the job. I'm sorry." The driver was understandably disappointed. If only I could've gotten closer to the edge, he thought to himself.

Gordon went back to his office and asked the second candidate to come in. During the interview he found out that the driver used to work for the CIA. "Could you elaborate on that at all?" Gordon asked. The man replied in an even tone, "If I did, I'd have to kill you." Gordon decided that he meant it, so he ended the interview session and asked the man to chauffeur him up the mountain.

Gordon took the chauffeur on the same narrow, winding mountain road and eventually, he asked him to drive as close to the edge as he could. The ex-CIA agent was an impressive driver and he pulled even closer to the edge than the first driver had. Satisfied that he had seen enough, Gordon asked the driver to take him back home. When they arrived at his estate, Gordon said, "I'm sorry, but you didn't make the cut either."

Gordon interviewed the final candidate in the same way he interviewed the first two and had him drive up the same mountain road. When he asked the driver to drive along the edge of the road, however, something different happened. Instead of veering towards the edge of the mountain, the driver veered away from the edge. Gordon asked the man, "I told you to drive on the edge of the road and you didn't do it. Why?" "I don't like taking risks," the man replied, "and if I'm going to have to risk my life to get this job, I don't want it."

When the limousine arrived back at Gordon's estate, he smiled and told the man that he had made the cut. Baffled, the driver replied, "Why me? I didn't drive along the edge of the road like you asked."

"That's exactly why I hired you," Gordon said. "I want a chauffeur who can make wise decisions, not one who takes foolish risks."

*     *     *     *     *

The first two men in the story skirted the edge of the road because they thought it would get them a job. In reality, though, their choice to do so wasn't a very good one. If they had lost control of the limousine, they would've killed both themselves and Gordon. And if that happened, they would've been both out of a job and dead---not a stellar combination.

The third driver made a much wiser choice. He knew that risking his life to get a job wasn't a good idea, so instead of trying something dangerous, he did something he knew would be safer. In the end, the driver's commitment to safety paid off, because he got the job.

I think that we as Christians often take a lot of unnecessary risks. We skirt the line between what's wrong and what's right, and usually, we don't have a good reason for it. Maybe our friends push us to. Maybe we just want to see how far we can go before we get in trouble. Most people would agree that driving on the edge of a twisting mountain road isn't smart, but a lot of folks don't see the harm in skirting the line between good and evil.

Sometimes, I think people justify pushing the envelope by claiming that they don't know where the line is. If I can't see the line, then how do I know whether or not I'm crossing it? One of the other excuses I hear a lot is that there is no such thing as skirting the line---life is just a bunch of gray areas, so there is no line. Kind of like there is no spoon (look it up if you don't get it).

Both of those excuses are completely, totally false. The Bible isn't just a book of rules, but it does clearly establish the so-called "line" for many common issues. The Ten Commandments (Exodus 20) and Jesus' Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7) are both full of guidelines as to what's wrong and what's right. If you ever have a question about where the line might be on a particular issue, check out those passages. A topical concordance is another great way for finding out what God has to say about a specific issue.

Psalm 119:105 says that the Bible is a lamp unto our feet and a light unto our path. When we're not sure what the right thing to do is, we should go to God's Word instead of trying to figure things out for ourselves. There's a passage in Isaiah that says:

This is what the Lord says---your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel: "I am the Lord your God, who teaches you what is best for you, who directs you in the way you should go."

Isaiah 48:17 (NIV)

God is more than happy to teach us what's right and what's not. If we're willing to let Him, He'll lead us along straight paths (Proverbs 3:6). Without God's help, it's easy to get lost on the winding paths of life but with His Word as a guide---a map---we can learn to walk in the light.

Have you taken a look at The Map lately?