Traffic . . . it's not for the faint of heart!
Taillights flash. Up ahead automobiles are slowing down. I apply the brakes and my car comes to a halt. Did a red light stop me? No! I am on Interstate 95, and last time I checked the speed limit read “55 MPH.” Not that it matters! Traffic usually cruises comfortably at sixty-five to seventy.
Impatiently, I try to peer around the eighteen-wheeler that is blocking my view: “What is holding us up?” I can’t see a thing. I imagine serious carnage lies ahead. What else could create this kind of delay?
We’re closer now, one or two more cars and . . . I can’t believe what I am seeing! “That’s it?” I ask myself. “We’ve crawled along at a snail’s pace for the last half-mile because someone has a flat tire?” I want to yell, “GET MOVING!” to the slowpokes in front of me. But it is useless. Outside my car, heads turn and necks crane. People gawk and traffic inches along. Rubberneckers!
Rubberneckers drive me crazy! “Slow down and look” is their motto! They believe their driver’s license grants them indiscriminate braking privileges -- even at the cost of a five-mile delay. Don’t they know curiosity killed the cat?
As much as I despise rubbernecking, I have grown to appreciate their motto: “Slow down and look.” I realize there is one place God wants me to turn my head, crane my neck, and take a second look. It is when I am driving through the pages of Scripture. Check out what the writer of Proverbs says:
My son, if you accept my words and store up my commands within you, turning your ear to wisdom and applying your heart to understanding, and if you call out for insight and cry aloud for understanding, and if you look for it as for silver and search for it as for hidden treasure, then you will understand the fear of the LORD and find the knowledge of God. For the LORD gives wisdom, and from his mouth come knowledge and understanding. (Proverbs 2:1-6 NIV)
When it comes to reading the Bible, God wants me to slow down and look -- to be a Rubbernecker! Consider the phrases the writer of Proverbs uses: “turning your ear,”“applying your heart,” and “if you look for it.”
Too often I travel at warp speed through the Bible. I read verses and chapters like I drive I-95 -- FAST! When I am barreling along I pass up beautiful words and meaningful phrases that God intends as food for my soul. An old professor of mine once said, “The Bible is not a book to be read through, it is a book to be lived in.” God agrees. When it comes to the pages of Scripture, he says, “Slow down and look.”
Reading the Bible is one place where it is okay—even advisable—to be a Rubbernecker!
GET STARTED RUBBERNECKING . . . Pick one of the links below. Slow down and take a look at what God says:
Click here to remember his care for you.
Click here to recall his promise if you don't quit.
Click here to grasp his love for you.
Click here to dwell on his power for you.
Click here to think about what really matters.