Because of what I do for a living, I get to spend many hours of the day (and night) on the highways. Not too long ago, I was traveling Interstate 85, which runs right next to the mammoth Atlanta, Ga., airport. As I watched jets of all sizes take off and land (barely skimming the top of the I-85 traffic, I might add!) I couldn't help but think about all the trust those passengers had in their respective pilots.
Think about it: You're in an enclosed capsule, traveling at several hundred miles an hour at heights of several miles - and you don't even know the person who, at that particular moment, has your very life in his or her hands.
And, to top it off, you're most likely flying in an airplane that was built by the lowest bidder! Quick - name one of the people who helped to construct that jet you flew on last week.
When you landed, you might have taken a taxi to your hotel. Have you ever spent any time with that cab driver? Did you know his background or did you know someone who's third cousin had a friend who was a friend of someone who thought they knew the cabbie's second child's first grade teacher's great aunt's husband's plumber?
Nevertheless, you probably jumped in the back seat and let that cab driver take you on your second flight of the day, zig-zagging through downtown at speeds just under what the airplane was doing an hour earlier.
Have you ever bought a new car? After you signed the papers and drove off the lot, did you give it a good shake down on the interstate - just to see "what it would do?" In other words, did you drive, uh, ummm, a little above the speed limit? Did you crawl under the car to make sure everything was connected and fastened? Did you pull off the interior door panels to make sure the wires to the power windows were not rigged to a passenger ejection seat?
What about that great meal you had last night at the restaurant on the other side of town. Did you ever think about the history of the people that prepared your food - or better yet, do you know exactly where that food came from?
Let's review: A total stranger has flown you across the country. You've ridden in the back seat of a taxi with a Dale Earnhardt, Jr., wanna-be. You've floored the accelerator of a car that was built by people thousands of miles away from you. And that meal...what country did it come from?
Why did you do all of that?
Trust. You've trusted in the people who've labored to make cars, planes, prepare food and so on. You've trusted in the assumption that they knew what they were doing and that they had the special training that their occupations may have required. You've trusted in a company's reputation.
Now I have another question.
Do you have that same trust in Jesus?
I think it's somewhat odd that we will literally trust our lives with people and things we have never seen, nor have never grasped the complex mechanisms of. We just do it. But when it comes to having a relationship with the Lord and Savior, we tend to put the brakes on and say, "Whoa, now let me think about this."
Someone might be saying, "Well, that's different."
Is it?
If we can put our trust so blindly in humans and machinery that will - it's not a question of if, but when - fail us, why can't we do the same with a Savior who has an impeccable track record?
Where is your trust?
