Day 66



The Moped

 

The prudent see danger and take refuge, but the simple keep going and suffer for it.

 

Proverbs 27:12

 

 

Ethan was given a moped by his grandparents. It had been sitting in their garage unused for some time and they decided that Ethan was old enough to use it. I took it down to the local hardware store so that they could get it in running condition.

When it was fixed I rode it home. The only way to anywhere in the small town we lived in was on the highway. The speed limit in town was 35 mph, though typically people went faster. The moped would top out at 35 mph on a flat surface but we lived in the hills of Arkansas. I could go as fast as I needed to keep from getting run over if I was going down hill but going up hill it would only go about 5 mph. I quickly decided that it was not safe for Ethan to ride in town even if he was wearing a helmet and body armor.

The street we lived on wasn't long and had a dead end. He could ride the moped on that but it would have been pretty boring after a while. I thought maybe he could use it like a dirt bike and ride it on the trails around our street. (There were only 3 houses on the street the rest was just woods.)

Before I sent him off riding through the woods I though it best for me to test it to see if it was safe for Ethan. I got on the moped and took of on one of the trails.

The trail was kind of rocky and went steeply down hill. The moped, I discovered, had no shocks. It wasn't long before I was going way too fast and was airborne. It was then I made some crucial discoveries:

• Brakes don't work when you are in the air. Not even air brakes.
• Riding on that trail, with that moped, was not safe for me or  Ethan or probable Evil Knevil.
• Preachers may be full of hot air but we do not float and we are still subject to the law of gravity.
• The ground is hard. Very hard. I have the scar to prove it.

I wish I could say that the moped incident was the first time I have done something so goofy. Unfortunately I have years of experience in the goofy department.

Once in my younger years, when I was a recreation director for a camp, the youth minister took the teens to this swimming hole. The big attraction was about a 10 foot waterfall we were told you could jump off of into a pool of water below.

The youth minister told me, "Jess you're the rec guy, jump off that waterfall and see if it is safe."

In a moment of sanity I asked, "And if it isn't?"

"Then we will swim somewhere else," he said.

My moment of sanity had passed because that seemed like a reasonable response. So I jumped off of the waterfall into the water below. (Give me some credit - I didn't dive.) Fortunately it was safe to jump off, though I almost got hypothermia because the water was so cold.

Proverbs 27:12 tells us, "The prudent see danger and take refuge, but the simple keep going and suffer for it."

I readily admit I have done some simple minded things and suffered a few bruises and cuts from them. How I have escaped without ever breaking a bone is the grace of God. Now that I am older and my athleticism and recuperative powers aren't what they used to be I am much more cautious. To go on putting myself in harm's way trusting God will miraculously bail me out would be more than simple minded. It would be presumptuous and wrong.

 

Upon Further Review:

 

Read Matthew 4:5-7

• What is Jesus tempted by the devil to do?
• Did the devil make it seem like a reasonable thing to do?
• What about the situation did Jesus tell the devil was wrong?