I am constantly amazed at how people act, especially on the road. We have laws and rules for driving yet people seem to ignore these on a regular basis. The next five paragraphs happened today and all within about 1 hour.
Speed limits are posted for a reason, but yet people fail to follow them. For example today I was out driving and we have some work on a major road. The speed limit drops from 65 to 55 and there is enough of a warning to let you know. Yet people fly as though it is still 65, but once you get back to where it is 65 and you are going 65, then they decided to slow down to 55. Not only do they slow down, they are in the left lane. People wake up.
I was going 65 in a 65 mph zone and was quickly flying up on this car. I thought for sure this person would get over. No, they were going 45 in the left. Why? Because there was a Sheriffs car in the right lane. The police will not give you a ticket for going the speed limit. So go or get over. I do not care if you want to drive 45, but do so in the right lane.
Then we have those people people who treat stop signs as yields and yields as stop signs. The four letter word, stop, means to stop. That is the speedometer actually reaches 0. It does not mean sort of stop and roll on through if no one is coming.
The five letter word yield means to slow down and proceed with caution and stop if necessary. Not go as fast as possible to beat the other car nor does it mean come to complete stop if no one is coming.
Then we have the red lights which mean stop, but not where I live. It means I have 2-5 seconds to get through before the light turns green and even then I have about 3 seconds before anyone will move and that is what happened to me today. I was at a red light and it turned green. I started to go thinking people that were going across would stop at their red light. No they sped up to get through almost hitting me in the process.
I was in Massachusetts for almost all of 2014 and part of 2015. I hate that state with regards to driving. People do not go when the lights are green because someone may come flying through. They do not look when they change lanes, they just go. I think most if not all of the people in that state are brain dead or zombiefied. They just get in their cars and drive. They do not plan in advance when they need to get over to turn or to merge onto another lane. No, they just go with little regard for who is around them. Furthermore, most of them have no idea what any of the road signs even mean such as stop, yield, merge, speed limits, etc. I was amazed that there were not more accidents.
Why do we have these rules/laws? It is to prevent chaos and potentially hurting or killing someone, but our society wants to treat these things as though they could not help themselves. I know if you had done any of these things 25 years ago, you would get a ticket. Today, the police are as bad if not worse than the other drivers.
Our society is collapsing and rapidly. You may be thinking really just because of the way people drive. I will tell you yes. I base my hiring decisions for service personnel on how they drive. I will not hire any carpenter, plumber, electrician, hvac, etc that is driving like a nut job because if they are driving that way, what is to prevent them from providing service that is the same. But that really does not indicate why our society is collapsing. It is collapsing because we are becoming complaisant and accepting what use to be considered abnormal as normal. God is the one who sets normality and it has never changed, but we are redefining what God has said and therefore trying to change normality. So why are we ready to rewrite what is and was is not acceptable? Because we do not want to accept that we have sinned. We want to think that what we do no matter what is perfectly ok. Before long I believe we will come to accept robbery, rape, and murder as a part of our normal society and it will be ok to do such acts. We already accept murder as part of our societal norm in the form of abortion. We would rather see violence be in the form of sports, movies, books, or tv shows to almost anything else.
I am just a bit frustrated is all if you could not tell. But I am reminded of the verses below:
James 1:2-27New International Version (NIV)
Trials and Temptations
2 Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, 3 because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. 4 Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything. 5 If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you. 6 But when you ask, you must believe and not doubt, because the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. 7 That person should not expect to receive anything from the Lord. 8 Such a person is double-minded and unstable in all they do.
9 Believers in humble circumstances ought to take pride in their high position. 10 But the rich should take pride in their humiliation—since they will pass away like a wild flower. 11 For the sun rises with scorching heat and withers the plant; its blossom falls and its beauty is destroyed. In the same way, the rich will fade away even while they go about their business.
12 Blessed is the one who perseveres under trial because, having stood the test, that person will receive the crown of life that the Lord has promised to those who love him.
13 When tempted, no one should say, “God is tempting me.” For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone; 14 but each person is tempted when they are dragged away by their own evil desire and enticed. 15 Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death.
16 Don’t be deceived, my dear brothers and sisters. 17 Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows. 18 He chose to give us birth through the word of truth, that we might be a kind of first fruits of all he created.
Listening and Doing
19 My dear brothers and sisters, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry, 20 because human anger does not produce the righteousness that God desires. 21 Therefore, get rid of all moral filth and the evil that is so prevalent and humbly accept the word planted in you, which can save you.
22 Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. 23 Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like someone who looks at his face in a mirror 24 and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. 25 But whoever looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues in it—not forgetting what they have heard, but doing it—they will be blessed in what they do.
26 Those who consider themselves religious and yet do not keep a tight rein on their tongues deceive themselves, and their religion is worthless. 27 Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.