I have been away for a while. My mother died and I had to handle the business of wrapping up her estate and things. Then, I had an offer to teach a couple of continuing education courses at a nearby college, so I have been working up the presentations and study materials. It might all be for naught. I am still waiting to hear if anyone signed up or not. So, I thought I would post something here.
Imagine if your life hit a bump in the road like mine did. What if someone close to you died and you would never again be able to have his or her help and support, would you feel down then? What if you found something to busy yourself doing, something you felt important, but then found out it did not matter? No one was interested in what you found interesting. What if your life suddenly and irreversibly just became an exercise of futility?
The world is heading to a cataclysm, but no one is doing anything to prevent it from happening.
Did you see the movie Planes, Trains, and Automobiles, starring John Candy (deceased) and Steve Martin? It is a classic. I recommend it. One real funny part I like is when John Candy is driving a car at night, while Steve Martin is sleeping in the passenger seat.
Candy tries to take off his coat while driving and gets his arm stuck. Trying not to wake up Steve Martin, he loses sight of the road and the car goes down and exit ramp. Candy sees what has happened and slams on the brakes, making the car skid and spin in circles.
Steve Martin wakes up and asks, “What’s going on?” John Candy says everything is fine, so Martin goes back to sleep and Candy starts driving up the ramp to get back on Interstate. Only problem is he is going up the exit ramp he just came down.
Martin wakes up and starts talking to Candy, and soon another car is seen across the median trying to pull up alongside them. That car is on the other side of Interstate, going in the right direction. The driver of that other car has his window down and is motioning out the window for Candy to roll his window down too. Candy does and listens to what the other driver is yelling. He is yelling, “You are going the wrong way!”
Martin asks, “What is he saying?”
Candy tells him, “He says we are going in the wrong direction.”
Martin asks, “How does he know where we are going?” He then makes a movement with his hand to his mouth, as if drinking something, indicating the other driver is probably drunk. Hilarious line!
“Yeah,” says Candy, and he and Martin laugh.
All of a sudden, both Candy and Martin’s eyes get open wide as they see two semi’s, tractor-trailer trucks heading right at them, one in each of the two Interstate lanes. The trucks are on them so quickly; Candy can do nothing to avoid impact. The two cover their eyes and the two trucks go on either side of their car, so close that each of the rear-view mirrors are broken off. Steve Martin peeks over at John Candy as the screech of metal upon metal is heard, and he imagines seeing him in a red devil’s costume, laughing at all the torture he has gotten them into.
Because it is a movie, a comedy, that scene makes me laugh so hard tears roll down my cheeks. If it were to be real, and not a comedy, Candy and Martin would have been instantly killed, and maybe one or both of the truck drivers also. Driving the wrong way on Interstate is a lethal thing to do, and it does happen, with terrible results. When it happens for real, it is far from funny.
I cannot tell you how many times I have tried to use that movie in an analogy about the cataclysm the world is facing. We are going the wrong way.
When one is going in the right direction, it is easy to see who is going the wrong way.
The right direction is going towards God. The wrong way is going towards man as god, and making plans for the world just as mice and men always do … selfishly and foolishly.
God gives prophets the right to roll down the window and shout out, “You are going the wrong way!”
The wrong way is accepting the end cannot be avoided (selfishly thinking God loves them, while God will punish others), and the wrong way is not believing the end is coming (foolishly not believing in God), when the signs of danger are all about.
Prophets tell you to stop going the direction you are going. In their own ways, they say turn around and go the right way. Do it now! If you do not heed a warning, you accept full responsibility for being a selfish fool.
That means you not only are responsible for your own suffering, but for the suffering of others.
Imagine if your life hit a bump in the road like the End Times, but you did not die. What if someone close to you died and you would never again be able to have his or her help and support, would you feel down then? What if you found that simply staying alive was something you felt was important, but then found out it did not matter to anyone else if you lived? No one was interested in you, other than what you had, which another did not have. What if your life suddenly and irreversibly just became an exercise in fear, despair, and guilt?
R. T. Tippett
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