Somebody’s Watching Me

Yesterday I received a surprise in the mail; not the mortgage overpayment check I’ve been waiting eagerly for, but a traffic ticket- in the mail.

A week and a half ago my wife and I went to a one day pastor’s conference in Seattle (blog pending). We were gone for three days.

We pulled back in to Salem on a Friday evening to pick up my kids from my parent’s house. As we approached the bridge to cross over the river to get to their house, the light turned red. We were in the right turn-only lane and there was no traffic approaching the bridge from the street perpendicular to us- the coast was clear. I slowed down as
I approached the light, made sure again that the streets were empty, and made the right turn onto the bridge.

We had been driving in stop and go traffic for approximately 6 hours up to this point, were very tired, hungry, and just wanted to pick up our kids.

There was just one thing that slipped my mind, apparently, as we turned onto  the bridge that evening after such a long day- stopping at the red light. I, for some reason, disobeyed a law. It wasn’t intentional, I meant no harm, and the streets were literally empty. But I broke a law nonetheless.

In fact I was completely unaware that I had broken a law and forgotten all about the circumstances leading up to my crime until I received a picture in the mail showing four pictures of me running this red light- Four Pictures…of me…without knowing it…without my permission. I was a little angry when I looked at the pictures. I felt as though my privacy had been violated.

My city had set up cameras, at least two of them, to take a picture of me IF I broke the law. It was like a trap, like a game camera set out in an apple orchard hoping to take a picture of a prize buck so that it could be shot the next night as it repeated its eating habits. If I do something wrong they want to know about it: So they can warn me and advise me not to let it happen again for the sake of my safety and everyone else’s in the city? Heck no! They set a trap for me so that they could benefit from it. Because IF I make a mistake and IF they catch me making said mistake they can fine me for…nearly $300!!! $300 for rolling through a stop light on a night when the streets are empty?!

I’m still mad if you haven’t caught my drift. The circumstance brings a truth to mind for me as a Follower of Christ (one who breaks the law by the way): That there are people out there who hate Christianity, hate the Bible and what it stands for, and hate Christ. These people would like nothing more than for a Christian to fail (i.e. break a law) so that they can point out the sin and use it to justify theirs and to belittle the changing power of the Gospel that the caught-in-the-act sinning Believer claims.

And the more influence or power you have as a Christian, the more people want to see you fail. Just look at scenarios like that of Jimmy Swagger, Jim Baker, and more recently, Ted Haggard. The media, and the unbelieving public, had a hay-day with these guys and used their sin to try to destroy the truths of our faith and to justify their own sins.

One of the words that comes to mind so quickly for the American public when the word Christian is uttered is “hypocrite”. People love to watch for Christians who talk one way, and act the other. And when preached the Gospel and invited to church, these people usually will use the excuse that they’re not interested because Christians are hypocrites.

They are right. And we should be the first to admit that: That we are messed up people saved by the grace alone of God by the finished work of Christ through the power of the Holy Spirit who still make messed up decisions because we still live in a carnal body and in a world filled with temptation and sin.

But on the flip side it is a Christian’s desire to please God and to do good works on His behalf so that he may be brought more glory. And that’s something we keep in mind as we are going about our lives in the world. If we are not bringing God glory with our actions, then we are defaming His Name to a world that is just waiting for us to make mistakes. And sometimes they’ll set up cameras (so-to-speak) to catch you in the act.

My fourth grade teacher Mrs. Handley used to make her students write out a certain sentence whenever they got in trouble; sometimes hundreds of times. I’ll never forget it. It went like this:

“I know the ways I act and the things I do are watched by others who desire to be just like me, therefore I need to be a good example.”

But not only are the things we do watched by the ones who want to be like us (our children), they are also watched by the ones who want us to be like them, and want nothing to be like us. What we do and how we talk has huge impact on our witness. Therefore we need to be good examples.

One Responseto “Somebody’s Watching Me”

1. Crystal says:

   September 8, 2010 at 8:46 am

   Kayla got a ticket in the exact same spot for the exact same violation, from the exact same camera. Sorry.