Have You Ever Got A Speeding Ticket?

Okay. I may be jinxing my self on this one, but I don't believe in Jinxes, so I guess I'll be fine- I've never got a speeding ticket before. Actually never received a ticket for any violation ever. Crystal says its because I'm lucky, or that somehow I am able to get out of it with my verbal gymnastics. Whatever it is, I've never got one. Been pulled over before? Oh yes. Plenty of times, but a ticket? Thank God, no.

It gives me a certain sense of pride to know that I've never got a ticket. Have I ever sped? Of course I have. I would say its almost daily that I end up speeding. Do I set out to 'speed'? Not really, but if your city is anything like mine, the flow of traffic is such that the 60mph zone sometimes gets going 63 or 65, or the 35 goes 37 or whatever. Over the limit is speeding. You don't have to go 20 over to be breaking the law, that's why they call it the limit. You're not supposed to go over it.

I'm thankful I've never got a ticket. I hear they're expensive. I don't want one. There has been times when I've been on the freeway and seen the officer outside his car with the radar gun, and hoped he didn't get me, and I got by unscathed.

On the flip side, which I think is an interesting phenomenon is that I seem to get a wee bit of satisfaction from seeing other people pulled over. When you see a cop pulling over a speeder, or when I see a person on the side of the road, there is a bit of personal pride I get from seeing someone else 'get it'. Glad that they got caught and that they're going to get a ticket. They're speeding. They should get a ticket.

I realized this- I like to get away with something I like other people to get punished for. For me? Grace. For them? Judgement!

Hopefully you can see this biblical misapplication in my personal righteousness regarding Washington state traffic law. The same grace that I receive is not the same grace that I wish upon others.

I think that happens alot in other people's lives. When faced with mistakes or poor choices, people want to receive grace and mercy from others. When it is the other way around, and they are at the receiving end of someones mistakes or poor choices, they want to heap judgment and wrath upon them.

Another way to say it is that people don't want to give others the same measure of grace that they want for themselves. We want forgiveness. We want them to pay.

Its not right. I think that for us to be people that truly love. That truly want to help others and impact their lives that we should extend the same measure of grace to them that we would want measured against us. That's what Jesus said, so I think its a good idea.

Be blessed, and forgiving.

matt