At the intersection coming out of our subdivision, we have a very modern traffic light. It's a very busy intersection, lying on a major, four-lane road and being the main entrance and exit for a major subdivision. As you come out, you have three lanes to choose from: a left turn, a right turn, and a lane for going straight. Each lane has sensors which tell the traffic light when someone is there. If you are on the sensor, then you get a light. If you are not on a sensor, you get no light. This seems pretty straightforward.
Yet, I repeatedly see people sitting in their cars, angry at not getting a light, when they are not on the sensor at all. This happens primarily in the left turn lane. The sensor, logically enough, is at the stop line. If you stop at the stop line, then you get a light. But people will not stop at the stop line. They pull forward, blocking people who turn and leaving the sensor unaware of their presence. Then they curse the light for not giving them a turn signal. It's like a bit of comic relief on your daily drive.
Think about this for a minute. Maybe they do not know there is a sensor at all. I am amazed at how many things people do not know and, I suspect, a lot of people just don't know about the sensor. So, they just pull up and sit there fuming while the light does its job properly. They feel perfectly innocent in the matter, even aggrieved, when it is all their fault.
It is hard to deal with someone who feels they are right when they are wrong. Not knowing there is a sensor, they wait wherever they please and expect you to adjust to them. Maybe, I think, they are just foolish people.
But, there is a stop line. Even if you don't know the sensor is there, you know the stop line is there because it is painted on the road. If you stop at the stop line, then you are on the sensor, whether you know it or not. You see, the real answer isn't that they need to know about sensors; about hidden, complicated things. They only need to do the obvious thing correctly.
Because the real explanation is that they are law-breakers. They simply will not stop on the stop line. They want that extra 15 or 20 feet that they "gain" by pulling forward. Each time they do this, they are manifesting their rejection of right and wrong. They are forced to wait because they are law-breakers.
This is how we are with morality. Some of us spend a lot of time debating subtleties. We want to have complex discussions on the propriety of various hypotheticals involving difficult questions, like looking for hidden sensors. But, the reality is that morality is not at all complicated. There is a stop line. I am to love God and love my neighbor. All the law is summed up in these two things. If I always stop on the stop line (if I always love God and my neighbor), then everything works properly. If I do not stop, then I mess up the whole system. I block other drivers and I do not get a turn signal and I am stuck in life where I do not want to be.
The key is to know where the stop line is and, of course, to stop at the stop line. You don't have to understand sensors, you just have to obey the obvious law God has given us.
Just stop at the stop line.
Yet, I repeatedly see people sitting in their cars, angry at not getting a light, when they are not on the sensor at all. This happens primarily in the left turn lane. The sensor, logically enough, is at the stop line. If you stop at the stop line, then you get a light. But people will not stop at the stop line. They pull forward, blocking people who turn and leaving the sensor unaware of their presence. Then they curse the light for not giving them a turn signal. It's like a bit of comic relief on your daily drive.
Think about this for a minute. Maybe they do not know there is a sensor at all. I am amazed at how many things people do not know and, I suspect, a lot of people just don't know about the sensor. So, they just pull up and sit there fuming while the light does its job properly. They feel perfectly innocent in the matter, even aggrieved, when it is all their fault.
It is hard to deal with someone who feels they are right when they are wrong. Not knowing there is a sensor, they wait wherever they please and expect you to adjust to them. Maybe, I think, they are just foolish people.
But, there is a stop line. Even if you don't know the sensor is there, you know the stop line is there because it is painted on the road. If you stop at the stop line, then you are on the sensor, whether you know it or not. You see, the real answer isn't that they need to know about sensors; about hidden, complicated things. They only need to do the obvious thing correctly.
Because the real explanation is that they are law-breakers. They simply will not stop on the stop line. They want that extra 15 or 20 feet that they "gain" by pulling forward. Each time they do this, they are manifesting their rejection of right and wrong. They are forced to wait because they are law-breakers.
This is how we are with morality. Some of us spend a lot of time debating subtleties. We want to have complex discussions on the propriety of various hypotheticals involving difficult questions, like looking for hidden sensors. But, the reality is that morality is not at all complicated. There is a stop line. I am to love God and love my neighbor. All the law is summed up in these two things. If I always stop on the stop line (if I always love God and my neighbor), then everything works properly. If I do not stop, then I mess up the whole system. I block other drivers and I do not get a turn signal and I am stuck in life where I do not want to be.
The key is to know where the stop line is and, of course, to stop at the stop line. You don't have to understand sensors, you just have to obey the obvious law God has given us.
Just stop at the stop line.
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