Breaking

The other day I was driving behind this big white van.  We were going down Brambleton, past Kroger, and they started to break.  I followed their lead and I too began to slow down.  Not being able to see past the van and observe that the light was red, I ended up having to break harder than I thought after noticing that the van was stopping.  At this moment I came to a huge realization about breaking.. there are two types: breaking to slow down, and breaking to stop.

I'm one of those people that loves to relate stuff that has no real meaning to life.. weird, I know.  So I started thinking about how we as people "break" in these two ways.  And how everytime we do something we don't like, we're faced with the decision to break to slow down or to break to stop.  Everytime I eat a cookie I have to decide whether I'm going to only eat half a cookie next time or stop eating cookies completely.

Looking at this from a Christian standpoint, I see that everytime I sin I have a choice to either slow down or to stop.  Unlike driving, the right choice in this situation is always clear: to stop.  So why don't I?  Why don't we stop?  Is just slowing down easier?  I think so.  But what's easiest is not always best.  In fact, I would go as far as saying that the easiest thing is typically not the best thing.  I do feel like in some situations gradually slowing down is the best way to stop.  But why is it so hard for us to just stop?

There is a beautiful song called How Deep The Father's Love For Us that I love and one of the lyrics says: Behold the Man upon a cross, my sin upon His shoulders, ashamed I hear my mocking voice call out among the scoffers.  This simple lyric really made me think about the cross in a way I never had before.  I had never thought about it this way before, but everytime I sin, I am basically looking up at Jesus on the cross, dying for me, and telling him, "thanks, but no thanks."  Thinking about how many times I have done this to the Lord who loves me so much and so unconditionally makes me want to never sin again.  Obviously, this is not possible, but I can still do my best. :)

Kinda all over the place, but kinda all tied together.  God is so good.