The devil made me do it

When I was a very young boy my mother used to tell me that I had an angel that always sits on my left shoulder and a devil on my right. They both are always trying to get me to do things their way. It seems that as I grew older the devil had his way with me pretty much all of the time. I became a Christian at age twenty four and things dramatically improved, but the devil still has his way with me right up until today. He does not have it as much as he did and when he does I regret it, (at least most of the time).

Every day we are faced with decisions and we should try our best as Christians to model our lives after our role model Jesus Christ. I often ask myself the question, what would Jesus do in this situation? That is a good way to approach those tough decisions. Sometimes I don’t ask the question and just follow my natural desires and the following event is an example of not asking the question and just giving in to the devil. I have to admit that even to this day I do not regret this incident as much as I should and some of you will probably unsubscribe when you read just how much of a cad I still am.

I have always disliked having cyclists riding their bicycles in traffic. I realize that we should not throw all cyclists in the same bucket, but in general they all seem to be discourteous, aggressive, and don’t seem to mind if they hold up traffic behind them. I have inched along behind them while they rode right down the middle of the road in heavy traffic trying to pass on more occasions than one and it is very frustrating. It was especially bad where I lived in downtown Atlanta. They dress up in their cyclist suits consisting of bright jerseys, black stretch pants, and half helmets and hit the streets with head down pumping their way through the crowded streets of downtown Atlanta completely oblivious to those around them who are trying to get to and from work.

One day I was driving home from a hard day at work and was exhausted. I had been driving through a torrential downpour. The heavy rainfall finally abated some but it had caused water to flood the saturated streets and traffic was a mess and bumper to bumper. We were inching along frustrating inch by inch for an interminable amount of time when finally it began to pick up and the traffic started to actually start moving a little.

As I rounded a corner I saw the problem. A cyclist had been riding down the middle of the street and holding up a line of cars two miles long. When he rounded the corner, he moved over slightly and allowed some of the cars to pass. As I was riding along I was thinking that he did not do this as a courtesy as this would not be consistent with his cyclist creed, but he did so because water was flooding the street and he did not want to ride through it.

As I approached him he actually moved to a sidewalk to avoid a huge puddle of water in the street. I saw my opening and without undo reflection I inexplicably veered my car over whereby it would go through the huge puddle of water. It threw a very heavy wall of water that was perhaps twenty feet high and one foot thick directly on him. I looked in the rear view mirror and it was a direct hit and nearly knocked him off his bicycle. He was soaked from head to toe, his glasses were askew on his drenched face, and he actually had to stop pedaling to recover and clear the water from his face.

When I saw it I started demonically and uncontrollably laughing at the top of my lungs and it continued for nearly a block. Revenge on the nerd, I derisively thought.

As I drove on I thought about this in relation to my spiritual walk and came to the conclusion that this behavior is definitely not the Christian attitude that Jesus desires for His children. I know this in my heart of hearts, but somehow I am having a very difficult time being remorseful about this incident. My spirit tells me that I should not have done this deed and further that I should not have enjoyed it either, but I actually was not remorseful in the least and felt that not only did the cyclist get what he deserved for being a typical cyclist, but that it was really excellent timing and steering on my part to achieve such a direct hit with a perfectly formed wall of water. It almost reminded me of my water skiing and slalom days when I sprayed bystanders as I skied by them.

It just goes to show that I have a very long way to go in order to achieve some semblance of kindness and Christian concern for my fellow man. I could have easily avoided even gently spraying this guy, but instead deliberately moved over and sped up a little in order to cover him completely. What kind of depraved mind does that?

The Bible teaches that we have all sinned and are unworthy to gain access to our holy God. If it were not for His love for us and grace we would die and rot away in our sins. Jesus was completely devoid of sin and even though He was tempted in every way, He resisted and lived the perfect life without even one negative thought. He is the only one who ever accomplished this. All of the righteous men and women throughout the Bible, many of whom who walked and talked directly with God, fell short at one time or other and sinned.

I hate that he had to go through it, but I am exceedingly glad that Jesus did what He did on the cross. I’m also glad He is pure love and completely devoid of what makes this world mean and cold. Without His sacrifice, access to a holy and perfect loving God and all of the good that goes with it would be denied. Something tells me that I have a long – long long long – long way to go with my Christian lifeand lest you are smugly thinking poorly of me for having faults right now and getting all set to send me those nasty e-mails, you are really not any different – read below

Romans 3:11
There is no one righteous, not even one