Back away from the paint brush …

I’m watching danger!

Actually I’m watching cars hurtling down a freeway in the San Francisco bay area. Driving can be a dangerous thing, especially considering the number of people who are sending text messages, applying make-up, or eating while trying to steer their vehicle at 70 miles an hour. It’s safer to fly!

Air transportation is actually quite safe when compared to traveling by car. But there was a time a few decades ago when flying wasn’t quite as safe, and safety wasn’t taken quite as seriously. In fact, in the early years of the airline transportation industry, airline companies had quietly established a practice that if one of their planes crashed, a team of employees closest to the scene were immediately dispatched to the crash site with a specific objective: paint over the company logo on the airplane before any press arrived. The airline companies didn’t want the evening news broadcasting a crash scene with their logo visible to all watching. Newspaper headlines with a photo of a crashed plane and the company’s emblem emblazoned across the front page wasn’t good for business.

But airplanes do occasionally crash. Automobile drivers often have wrecks. And human beings often fail.

Unfortunately, too often when we fail, we respond more like the airline companies of yesterday. Jeremiah writes about this problem in Jeremiah 8:4-7:

“Jeremiah, say to the people, ‘This is what the Lord says: “When people fall down, don’t they get up again? When they discover they’re on the wrong road, don’t they turn back? Then why do these people stay on their self-destructive path? Why do the people of Jerusalem refuse to turn back? They cling tightly to their lies and will not turn around. I listen to their conversations and don’t hear a word of truth. Is anyone sorry for doing wrong? Does anyone say, ‘What a terrible thing I have done’? No! All are running down the path of sin as swiftly as a horse galloping into battle! Even the stork that flies across the sky knows the time of her migration, as do the turtledove, the swallow, and the crane. They all return at the proper time each year. But not my people! They do not know the Lord’s laws.'”

How do you handle crashes in your life? Do you respond like the airline companies of old, who try to “paint over” their identity so no one knows it was they who failed? Or do you confess your failings and turn to God to make you whole?'”

Scotty