Please consider writing a Google Review for us. Log into your Google Account, search for Creekwood UMC, then find the “Write A Review” button and you’re on your way.
Life Without A Backup Camera
“For whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, so that by steadfastness and by encouragement of the scriptures we might have hope.”
-Romans 15:4 NRSV
Show this picture to anyone born after the year 2000 and ask them what that little slot below the radio display is for. Ask anyone born after 2010 what you stick in the the really skinny slot above the radio display. But for all of us who have purchased a car since around 2012, what’s missing from this picture?
If you said “an LCD/LED video display” you’d be correct. And what’s missing when there’s no video display?
On Saturday, one of our vehicles went down to an accident that has left the vehicle inoperable for the near future. Everyone was okay, thank goodness, but we were left with the inconvenience of having to navigate life with one car as the rental car covered by our insurance won’t be ready until Wednesday. Fortunately, my brother came to the rescue.
Due to a series of events in his in-law family, Mark has inherited a “back-up” truck that he uses for messy jobs – you know, to make sure his nice pick-up truck doesn’t have to do the hard work and stays “Texas clean.” He lets us borrow it whenever, and offered it again until we get our rental car. It’s a wonderful Toyota Tacoma that drives nice, but I didn’t realize what was missing until I was backing up Sunday morning and heard a honk behind me. My first instinct was, “WHERE DID THAT CAR COME FROM!”
Then it hit me. I wasn’t even looking behind me.
Ever since I got a new car in 2015 I’ve had a back-up camera that pops up nice and brightly on a beautiful LCD or LED screen, showing me every obstacle behind me and even providing lines to help me park and gauge the distance that I have left to operate. Where parallel parking used to be a challenge, it’s a breeze thanks to my back-up camera. But I’d gotten so used to staring at the screen to back up that I didn’t even think to look backwards without one.
What I’d forgotten, is the fundamental reality of what it takes to drive a car safely.
The scripture quoted above from the letter to the Romans is part of a long argument Paul is making to the Christians of Rome to find common ground and unity in Christ between those Christians who consider themselves Jewish and those who were Gentiles. We shouldn’t forget that the New Testament didn’t exist while they were writing the New Testament, so Paul is appealing to both parties with the writings of the Hebrew Bible. Even Gentile Christians, while not subject to the law (in Paul’s view), are encouraged to take inspiration from the way of life and vision of heaven on earth given in the Torah. They are meant to be convicted by the harsh admonitions of inequality and idol worship in the prophets.
While Paul is driving them forward into a new covenant with Christ, he’s reminding us that some things of God are just fundamentally basic, and we can’t forget to look behind us to gain inspiration and instruction for the future.
It may sound redundant at this point, but I feel like our church and THE church went through a period where we both forgot how to look behind us and became too reliant on “preferential features” over and above the basic fundamentals of driving.
Deuteronomy 8:10-18 predicts that the Israelites will essentially become “fat and happy” after God has given them everything that they want. The heated seats, the heated steering wheel, Google maps, a back-up camera, self-driving capabilities, and wifi to keep the kids silent in the backseat might be amazing technological advances that I absolutely love and enjoy, but have they prohibited me from being the best I can be at actually driving and knowing how to navigate a vehicle in the world? When I’m so reliant upon a back-up camera that I fundamentally forget to look backwards for guidance and safety have I lost the ability to navigate without the flashy features?
Let me ask it another couple of ways:
- Do I feel inspired to love and honor God if there isn’t a special celebration, give-away, or reason to come to church that day?
- Do I know how to celebrate what God has done for me in my life if I don’t like the song or music style?
- When I hear the challenge or conviction that I might not be on God’s path, do I reject it in favor of a new-age message that tells me how perfect I am without any help or need to better love others?
- When I step out of my house, do I know that the world around me was given by God to care for, or am I looking for all the comfort to be given to me so that my life is easier?
- I’m not a doomsday survivalist by any means, so don’t take this as a devotional against technological features. I love technology and think it’s valuable for safety and comfort. What this is, is a reminder that the comfortable features we surround ourselves with – the preferences that become essential to us – might distract us from genuinely knowing the message of Christ and who we are called to be.
We might just forget to look backward and see what God has already done, already given us, and already told us as our inspiration for driving forward.
Peace,
David Lessner
PS – See you Sunday at 11am as we will be inspired by the gifts and testimonies from our students and their #BestSummerEver ministries!
PSS – Don’t forget that on August 6 we will return to 2 worship services at 8:30am and 11am.
