Tag Archives: AAA

day 2667: Running Red Lights

“Respect everyone, and love the family of believers. Fear God, and respect the king.”

The American Auto Association (AAA), also known by all of us as, “Triple-A”, reported recently that the annual auto deaths caused by running red lights is now at the highest number in ten years. 939 people died in the US in 2017 because of not stopping for a red light. The first immediate response and reason would be the likely suspect of distracted driving caused by texting and that seems plausible to be the largest culprit.  But, I wonder if there isn’t something else going on as well.  In my lifetime I can’t remember a time when respecting the rights of others has been so low.  Sure, there were the late 1960’s and without a doubt that was a time when culture began to challenge, “the man” and rebel against societal norms, but there is something different in the air now as we seem to have given up on respecting and trusting each other.  And, when that happens, why would we wait at a red light?  Blow on through since no one is around.  Gun it to squeeze out the yellow, not worrying about who might be getting ready to go. Don’t wait on others, just go!  I hope I am off base, but following the rules is as much about respecting others as it is obeying the law and when we lose that respect and it becomes all about “me”, then a red light is nothing more than something else to be ignored until I get caught.

The way God has it lined up for us is that we are to respect not only laws, but those who make the laws and everyone else around us. That’s pretty hard in today’s world.  It’s a lot easier to blame problems on those who govern and represent us and to blame any authority for the problems we have.  But, what if we actually did respect those people?  If we did, we would want to help them be successful, for all of our sake. The same is true of our co-workers and bosses.  We can’t make it better for anyone, if we don’t respect them and we certainly are not living up to God’s challenge to us if we practice running the red lights that are given to us.

Reference: I Peter 2:17 (New Living Translation)