Like Mother, Like Daughter

A daughter takes after her mother. And to that, I plead guilty.

Literally.

Glaring at the little AXS station in West Coast Highway Macdonalds, I did what I never thought I would have to do.

"Do you plead guilty to the charge?" flashed the little message on the screen, with a bright cheery green icon underneath, declaring 'YES'.

Do I have a choice? Apparently not, smirked the machine. If you wish to contest this and avoid paying the fine, it snidely added, you can slog it out in court on the 30th of June.

Like any good citizen who wishes to avoid facing a judge and all the hassles of court, I meekly admitted to my crime.

And there you have it. My first ever court conviction.

My guilt? For speeding on the 2nd Dec 2007, at 30 km above the speed limit. My old man, who said that he paid my fine last year, made a miscalculation. So the great omniscient arms of the Law swooped down on this poor little errant driver for not paying her fines, and turned it into a court case. I could still choose to pay off my fine (albeit doubled as a penalty), but it would be considered a court conviction.

Had I taken it to court, what could I say to the judge in defense, to explain why I chose to blatantly break the speed limit?

"I was uhh.... late for church?"

Sure, that was the real reason. And in my defense I sped for a 'good' cause; it's not as if I was doing it for an early morning joyride. Issues of waking up earlier aside, c'mon man... it's not that bad right?

But in the eyes of the Law, breaking a rule is breaking a rule. There's no mosey-ing about it. And there will be consequences for it which you would need to pay it off.

Now...

It bugs me a little, but the parallel between this and my walk with God is so in-your-face blatant. Often, when I go against God, or think "Mmm. I know God's not going to like this, but see, I'm going to do (insert course of action or thought) and He'll probably won't mind. He understands," it can sometimes be so hard to admit that I'm deliberately breaking His commands - no excuses about that.

And then I think that I'll get away with it. Yes, God's patient, God's merciful and He's redeemed me by what He's done on the cross, and because of that I don't have to pay the penalty of my sins. On Judgement Day, I won't have to stand trembling before the great Judge of all ages, and give wishy-washy excuses that won't help to defend my case in any way, since the moment one Law is broken, it's as good as breaking the whole Law.

But sometimes there's just no avoiding the consequences of sin. If I've said something carelessly that hurts a brother or sister in Christ for example, and then I repent of it. God will forgive, and maybe the offended party will forgive, but that doesn't stop the consequences from happening i.e. loss of trust.

What then? Stop sinning? Not possible; since the flesh strives against the spirit and I'll still stumble and do the things I don't want to do, or worst, do things that I know that I shouldn't be doing.

But at least, I suppose I can live each day by making straight paths for my feet, by thinking ahead and giving thought to my ways. "Let your eyes look straight ahead, fix your gaze directly before you. Make level paths for your feet and take only ways that are firm." (Prov 4:25-26)

Like my speeding ticket. If I had woken up early instead of lazing around in bed, I wouldn't be tempted to speed all the way to church.

You may be wondering where my mother fits in all this. With a bright sunny smile, she simply said to me after I returned from the still-mocking AXS machine, "Hey don't worry about it! I had a court conviction too when I was your age! At 25 too! And it was also for speeding; I didn't pay the fine so was hauled to court. Isn't that funny hahaha! Like mother like daughter!"

Uhh Your Honour? I've another excuse... my mother was indirectly responsible. It's the genes man, it's all in the genes.

Pass the Coffee: