Spiritually Speaking

I’m sure you’re familiar with that passage of scripture that calls us all to be “subject to the governing authorities.” As a middle-aged citizen in good standing with the City of Alva, County of Woods, and the State of Oklahoma, I rarely step out of line when it comes to local ordinances. I even make an effort to “keep off the grass” when the signage so directs. However ...

This morning, about 10:30, Becky found out that she needed to be in Enid by 12:20 to have her fingerprints electronically sent to the Oklahoma Education Association. She, too, is a good citizen but has been fingerprinted more than the worst of felons. Her “record” stretches from Georgia, to Florida, Texas and Oklahoma. This time around, she posted the prints in an effort to be useful to the Freedom School District.

By the time we hit the road, we had exactly enough time to get from point A to point B, with not a minute to spare. As a result, I may have exceeded the posted speed limit by an MPH or two. It reminded me of some interesting interpretations of the above-mentioned text I’ve run across through the years. One man felt that he was subject to the law as long as he stopped for the officer and paid his fines. Another had an interesting take on the seat-belt law.

He prefaced his argument with a loaded rhetorical question: “Do you think we should follow the laws of man even when they go against the will of God?” Of course, I had to agree that we should always give precedence to the will of God. “In that case,” he continued, “If I put on the seat belt and then have an accident in which God intended for me to die, but I live, have I thwarted the will of God?”

We didn’t cover that particular question in preacher’s school. However, now that Becky has another set of prints on file, I intend to go back to driving like an old man from Alva (no offense to those two lane hoggin’, slower than molasses, left blinker always on folks that we love so well). See you Sunday.