There are times that we seem to create our own set of problems. We look away and ignore certain warnings in our life when we should have looked straight at the difficulty and applied God’s remedy (His Word) to our problem. It’s kind of like the warning light in the dashboard of your car. You know the one that glows brightly displaying the words “Check Engine”. We think to ourselves, “I should do something about that warning. We shrug our shoulders and mumble to ourselves that we will look into it later. The funny thing is, the warning light keeps glowing and we keep making excuses. Then the inevitable happens. The car breaks down and it’s always at the most inconvenient time. I remember a particular moment in my life when this exact thing happened to me. I was much younger (and had a lot more hair-dang it) at the time, a college student attending a local junior college close to my home town. I was dating a girl that lived about 40 minutes from my home and I always would travel the back roads (I lived in the country) to get to and from her house. I had stayed over quite late one night before I realized the time and after saying good night, I got in my truck to leave. It was in the middle of the winter and it was about 2:00 am in the morning. I was wearing shorts and a T-shirt. Not real smart, I know! Nonetheless, as I traveled home I noticed that “Check Engine” light that had been annoying me for days, was still glowing brightly in the darkness of the night. You know what happens next of course, you guessed it, my truck begins to overheat and smoke and I am forced to pull over on the shoulder of the road. Here I am out in the middle of Tim-buck-too! It’s only 25F outside and I’m in shorts and a T-shirt. I get out of my truck (mumbling under my breath something to God about the unfairness of it all) to flag down the only car I will see that night and believe it not, the fool tried to run me over. I had to jump in the ditch on the side of the road to just keep from becoming road kill! I thought I was in the twilight zone. I get back in the truck shivering cold, scared and furious. I sit there a minute or two trying to think of what to do next and telling God if He would just get me out of this fix, I would start going back to church or something like that. After a few minutes, I decide the best thing for me to do is to walk about a mile back down the road to a house I had passed and ask to use the phone (this was before cell phones…I know what you’re thinking and I’m not that old). I arrive at the house thinking soon this terrible night will come to an end. Boy was I wrong. I knock on the door several times and finally wake someone up. They yell out, “who is it?” and I proceed to tell them my situation but before I can get my story out they yell back and say, “I have a gun, I’m calling the police, get out of here or I’ll shoot”. You have got to be kidding me! Did I just hear someone say “Get out of here or I’ll shoot?” As I am running off the porch fleeing for my life, freezing and terrified I am yelling back at them, “call the cops, call the cops!” Well, to make this very long story a little shorter, I stayed the night in my truck and almost froze to death waiting for daylight to arrive. Once it got light enough to see, I walked around 5 miles to the next little country town and sat there freezing until 9:00 am until the first and only store opened in this one man God forsaken town.

Crazy story huh? I look back now and consider my plight and kind of laugh (kind of laugh…it still stings a bit). I will tell you this much though, I will never ignore the glowing “Check Engine” light again! Never! Let me encourage you not to ignore your warning either. The Holy Spirit has a unique way of warning us ever so gently that we are headed toward problems. Life is hard enough without creating a mess of our own. The funny thing is, we ignore the warning light and our life breaks down and then we get really angry at God and blame Him for our plight. We humans are a peculiar bunch. Warnings, they are going off all around us and we somehow find a way to ignore them. The warning of a short temper, stress, irritability, fighting with our mate or avoiding conversation all together, making little compromises (which by the way, always leads us into bigger and worse compromises), ignoring our children who are asking us to spend time with them, making a habit of missing church, hanging around the wrong people, not praying or reading our Bibles, spiritual apathy…. the warning light on the dashboard of our heart is glowing brightly yet we continue full steam ahead toward a complete and total breakdown.

Let me encourage you. Don’t ignore the illuminated warning of the Holy Spirit. Heed His voice. Be obedient to His leading. He will help repair what is broken and make life much easier in the long run. It may take some extra effort and maintenance on the front end but it is worth it on the back end. Trust me, I know from experience!

Now back to the beginning of this blog. Life can throw you a curve ball and sometimes we throw ourselves one. Whichever it may be, we can rest in the complete confidence of knowing that God will be there to help us in either situation. God is a good and faithful Father. He loves us and cares for us. He is always keeping His watchful eye on us twenty four hours a day. That is comforting and sobering at the same time.

The Bible proclaims that God is our ever present help in time of need.
Call unto me and I will answer declares the Lord.

Many are the afflictions of the righteous but the Lord will deliver us out of them all.

If we confess our sins, God is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

Watch out for your enemy, the devil, for he prowls around like a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour.

If God be for us, who can be against?

Be encouraged today and keep a watchful eye on the dashboard of your heart.

-PK

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