Driving 74

How many times have we jumped on the highway and set the cruise control for 74?

74 is the perfect speed. We feel like we’re gaining so much over going 70, while not really breaking the law. Certainly not like those miscreants driving 75. Those guys are pushing it. No, 74 is the perfect balance.

Unfortunately we often live our lives this way. We’ll have some small sin we don’t really think is that bad, but we feel it gets us a little something extra out of life. Here’s the problem. Driving 74 is still breaking the law, and all it takes is one cop having a bad day to ruin ours. Same thing with small sins (or 74 sins as I like to call them in my oh-so-clever-gotta-put-a-title-on-everything-because-that’s-what-writers-do mind). Small sins can ruin our day just as badly as big sins. Maybe not with direct consequences, but instead by leaving the door open to larger sins.

All Satan needs is one small foothold in our lives to introduce new temptations to us. When we let small sins pass, we become inoculated to just how bad things are. Suddenly larger sins we never would have considered don’t seem so bad.

Before you know it we’ve sped up and we’re going 90. We’re not sure how we got to 90. We didn’t make any big jumps, just small two-mile-per-hour increases. But we do know those flashing lights in the rear view mirror are bad news.