Early one morning, a little over a year ago there was a tremendously destructive earthquake. Luckily the loss of life was minimal, especially when you consider the amount of devastation that occurred. Untold millions of dollars worth of property was demolished. Some of the damage was readily evident, while some was not. There was structural damage that could not be seen so easily with the naked eye.
Other cars sped across it just like any other morning. All of them totally unaware of the chance they were taking because of the structural damage that had been done to the bridge by the tremendous shaking of it’s foundation early that morning. Just as the young man reached the other side, he happened to look into his rear-view mirror, where only seconds ago there had been a string of traffic behind him. To his shock and horror, he quickly came to the realization that the bridge had collapsed, sending the cars behind him plunging into the waters below.
Dazed and shaken, he thought of the cars that were still coming towards the bridge. There was no way for them to see what awaited them just over the rise in the road. He knew that he had to do something, so he stopped the car and ran towards the oncoming traffic, waving his arms, motioning for them to stop. Most of them must have thought he was some kind of wild man, or just some kind of nut, if they noticed at all. They all had their minds on their own concerns. At any rate, they didn’t stop. They continued on to their own peril.
After what happened with the Heaven’s Gate, Halle-Bopp Comet incident, I felt much the same remorse I’m sure that young man must have felt. The foundations of our world are being shaken daily. The extent of the damage done to our society may not seem to be readily discernible to most, but the damage is there, just the same.
There are people who pass by us every day going on with their lives unaware of what lies just ahead, just beyond their range of vision. All the while going headlong down a dangerous path.
There are a lot of voices out there telling us that we shouldn’t get involved. After all, everyone has a right to live their own life. What right have we to impose our morality on someone else? What right do we have to say that our God is the only way to salvation? How can we say that Jesus is the only way to establish a relationship with God?
I don’t know about rights. I only know the road is out ahead of them and if they keep going the way they’re going . . . if someone doesn’t warn them, they will find out much too late to stop and turn around. They will plunge headlong into the bottomless pit that lies just beyond that rise in the road. It’s not a matter of challenging someone’s lifestyle for the sake of offense. It’s not about making them feel bad about the
choices they have made. It’s not about scaring them. It’s about warning them what lies ahead.
It’s true, just like that young man, we won’t be able to save them all. Some of them will dismiss us as nuts. Some of them may even be afraid of us and of what we profess, but some of them will stop. Some of them will listen. Some of them will turn around.
Copyright © 1996 Rae Holbrook
