Take Immediate
Evasive Action
July 8, 2002
Dirk Diestel, 47, looked up through a skylight at
his home shortly before midnight last Monday and saw a huge
fireball in the sky.
"Immediately I thought that something horrible had
happened," he said. When he went outside a landing gear was
lying a few feet from his home.
In that terrible moment more than 70 people,
including 52 children, were killed in the fiery nighttime crash
of a Russian charter jet, carrying top students to a resort area
near Barcelona, and a Boeing 757 cargo jet.
The anti-collision device on both jets is supposed
to prevent such accidents by superceding air traffic
instructions. The system tracks other aircraft and instructs
pilots to climb or descend to avoid midair collisions. The
systems ''talk'' back and forth so that jets on a collision
course do not maneuver into each other.
So what went wrong? Authorities believe the pilots
on one of the jets may have disregarded instructions from the
safety system--instead of flying up, they headed down into the
path of the other plane.
In a sense, God has equipped each of us with an
internal warning system that's intended to protect us from
spiritual catastrophe. Paul told the Corinthians, "No temptation
has seized you except what is common to man. And God is
faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can
bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out
so that you can stand up under it." (1 Corinthians 10:13).
God wants you to know that every temptation you
face is common to man. Whether it's got to do with honesty,
anger, greed, sex, or a host of other sins--your temptations are
faced by other guys. If misery loves company--that's good news.
Our problem is we sometimes feel we're on an
unavoidable collision course with an irresistible temptation and
the pleasure it promises. The key words in that last sentence
are "unavoidable" and "irresistible." God promises that no
temptation is "irresistible," and no sin is "unavoidable." He
guarantees an avenue of escape with every temptation. But
there's a catch. The avenue of escape occurs at the moment of
temptation. If we don't immediately take it, the door slams
shut.
Flying at more than 500 mph at 35, 000 feet the
two jets had little time to take evasive action. In fact, in
order to avoid a collision they needed to take immediate evasive
action away from each other. They didn't and the result was
catastrophic.
Similarly, as you race through your week, when you
sense you're on a collision course with sin--take immediate
evasive action.
Weekly verse: "No temptation has seized you except
what is common to man. And God is faithful; he will not let you
be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted,
he will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under."
1 Cor. 10:13).
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