Good Cop/Bad Cop...

Say you're driving along & you see a cop, maybe tucked behind a tree or in the u-turn lane of the 290, what do you automatically do?? C'mon, you know...you look down at your speedometer, right? I saw a cop car the other day and did that very thing. In that brief moment, I felt annoyed by his presence. It seems to me that all they do all day long is drive around trying to bust innocent speeding drivers going about their business. Sometimes we don't even THINK about how fast we're going until we see a cop.

So, I got to thinking that don't we sometimes view God this way? Like, we just go about our business, at full speed usually, and don't really think much about Him. Until...yeah, until, we need Him or when we mess up. Contrary to some beliefs, God doesn't just sit around waiting for us to screw up so He can wield lightening bolts at us. While we're expected to live our life as free from sin as possible, He knows our human weakness & is full of mercy. He is our Father who loves & cares for us...rescues us when we are in need.

Let us not forget that this same cop who works hard to keep us all in line, also keeps us safe, day in & day out. This same cop may work at getting a drug dealer off the street or pull over the drunk driver before he kills someone, or generally makes our quiet neighborhoods safe. He even puts his own life on the line...each day...for us. Does that sound like someone we know? We may not want to be reminded that we're doing things we shouldn't be doing (aka sinning), but oh how we cry out to God when we're in trouble. We don't like the cop forcing us to slow down, or heaven forbid, have him pull us over...but we sure would be quick to dial up 911 if someone was breaking into our home. Guess we can't have it both ways, can we? We can't call out to God in times of need, but ignore His presence in our lives the rest of the time. That cop is just doing his job, and if we just follow the rules, we'll never feel the pain of his lights flashing in our rear view mirror.