Pass me-I'm driving for Jesus

Kayla is not the biggest fan of driving, so I am often behind the wheel (I probably drive 300 miles for every 1 mile Kayla drives) the vast majority of the time.  One of the biggest annoyances I have while driving is speed limits.  They almost always seem set too low for the road.  “I could easily do 50 down this road.”

In one of the classes Kayla and I took recently online for CEF’s Children’s Ministry Institute, Reese Kauffman the current president of CEF said something that got me thinking.  He said that he would rather have an employee who was submissive to authority but had a poor work effort than one with a go-getter attitude and no respect for authority.  He gave an example from Scripture how Jesus upheld the Roman authority even though the government was corrupt and oppressive.  While it may feel like speed limits are oppressive, it is still of Christian importance to yield to the government.

I find it interesting that this is something that is not only ignored, but joked about in Christian culture.  I think back to when a wonderful old saint in our church got a speeding ticket on Ruskin Dr. while traveling to the church (and I do have to admit that 25 is much too slow for that road).  The overwhelming response I heard was joking about his lead foot etc.  This is not an isolated incident though.  I often hear people joking about how fast they got from one location to another compared to what it should have taken (if they were obeying the speed limit).

Having done over 20,000 miles since May, I can certainly attest to how tempting it is to want to speed. Even speeding by just 1mph would save me a quarter of a day just spend sitting in a car.  Unfortunately speeding even 1mph is disobeying the government/ the authority God has put in place for us, and ultimately sin-sin that Christ died on the cross and gave His perfect blood for.  It may seem a bit drastic, but it certainly should make you think twice about speeding.  The next time you go to set your cruise control above the speed limit, just remember that it isn’t the speed trap you should be worried about, it’s your submission to the authority God has set, it’s your testimony to other drivers around you/passengers in your vehicle, and it’s your relationship with God you put on the line just to arrive a few minutes earlier.