One day I decided
to make a small trip. The gas gauge said that I should fill up the tank, or at
least put some gas in it. However, I talked myself into going anyway. I
calculated how many miles it would be and how much gas my truck used and
convinced myself that I would make it.
Later, I was
cruising down the two-lane blacktop and I felt a faint lurch. Was that a lurch? Am I running out of gas?
The gauge says I have half a tank. I drove on for a while. Nothing
happened. I settled in knowing that I had imagined it…then it happened again.
And again.
I saw I was
getting close to I-90 and could see a gas station on the other side. If only I can make it to the top of I-90 I
can coast to the station. The more of an uphill slant the road took, the
worse the lurching. I tried pumping the gas pedal. I tried coaxing and
encouraging my Sonoma. I even tried threatening it. But it stopped just short
of the crest of the hill. I couldn’t push it. I couldn’t start it.
I looked to the
side of the road and saw a business there. I walked there and humbly offered to
purchase gas or get a push to the top of the I-90 overpass. They were kind and
helped me out. I apologized for disrupting their day and said, “I knew better
than that.” I knew I should have put gas in prior to departure.
James is making
the same point. He had already given a lecture, so they should know good from bad.
For me knowing to put gas in and not doing it was stupid. But spiritually, if I
know to do something I know is right and don’t it is worse than stupid, it is
sin.
I do know the
difference. I do know better than that.
“Therefore to him that knoweth to do good, and
doeth it not, to him it is sin.” James 4:17.
© copyright 2016
Kevin T Boekhoff
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