Lawlessness

   You don’t have to watch the News to see the increasing lawlessness in our society. You can witness it firsthand any time you drive your car. I’ve lost track of the number of times drivers have seriously endangered my life or the lives of those driving nearby. It’s now a daily occurrence. At within ‘five-over’  in the right lane, I am regularly tailgated to the point where I can vividly see the driver’s face but not the front of his or her car. Cars zoom across three lanes, squeeze themselves within an inch of my life and squeeze back across two lanes to the far left again.  All to end up sitting with me at a red light, unless they run it long after it has turned red.

   It used to be the occasional driver who drove like a maniac.  Now it’s the regular modus operandi of our populace, including mothers with their children sitting next to them in the front seat.  I feel like the tortoise who’s spun around in circles as the rabbit whizzes by him, just because I’m trying to obey the law.

   I’ve been told by international travelers that there are a number of countries whose drivers systematically ignore the stoplights, and everyone has to fight to move through the intersection...’survival of the most aggressive and reckless.’  I think I would get an ulcer if I had to do that every day.  (When I was in NYC, I felt like that as a pedestrian.)

   This morning I was reading in Matthew 24 about what Jesus said it would be like ‘at the end of the age’: “And the love of the great body of people will grow cold because of the multiplied lawlessness and iniquity...but he who endures to the end will be saved.”

   When my emotions rise in intense anger on the road of life at the lawlessness around me, God reminds me that I am in a different kingdom than many of those around me. In fact, I have to recite that to myself to still my own resulting feelings of road rage:  “I’m in a different kingdom, I’m in a different kingdom, I’m in a different kingdom....ADONAI is my King.”  He also reminds me to turn my anger into sincere prayer for the reckless drivers around me (and even for myself for my own occasional reckless actions).

   As we all know, it is not just on the road that we see increasing lawlessness. In Portland, there are
groups who have to decide what the day’s protest and disruption will be...rather like today’s special menu item. And there are those elsewhere who have stated they will keep killing police officers until they get what they say they deserve.  Hmmm, gives one pause about the answer to that demand, doesn’t it?

   But what do we all deserve? Suddenly my anger turns to self-conviction.  Are there areas of my own life where I’ve chosen to flout the authority over me? Am I participating in lawlessness in its subtler forms? Because I think I know better, do I ignore instructions from my boss or try to create a quiet rebellion among my coworkers, rather than speaking my concerns forthrightly and respectfully? Am I honest in all my dealings, financial and otherwise? Do I ‘fudge’ on my taxes to get a better return?  Lawlessness can take many forms, and we, as Christians, are called to the highest level of integrity by our Boss, whom we honor and obey out of affectionate reverence, respect, and love.

   Let’s ask him to show us any areas of our lives where our actions do not reflect His will. He is kind to not overwhelm us, but rather to show us, a little at a time, areas in need of sanctification. And let’s not forget to turn our anger and frustration with others into prayer for their own encounter with and transformation by the Lover of their souls.
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“I delight to do thy will, O my God; yea, thy law is within my heart”. —Psalm 40:8

“There is a kind of universal reaction which becomes an acceptable philosophy; that ‘if this is what is wrong with everybody, then. nobody need worry about it’....The Holy Spirit never meant to give anyone a sense of comfort in universal depravity.”  —Tozer