A few years ago the cruise control on my car stopped working. I took it to a repair shop and after about two hours they told me it would cost over $300 to fix it. Yikes! I thought that for $300 I would just keep pressing down on the gas pedal!
However, I really liked cruise control. It was easy. I didn’t have to worry about my speed on highways, my leg could be in a more comfortable position (and who doesn’t want to be comfortable?), and it was just plain fun to be able to ‘cruise’ down the highway! With cruise control I didn’t really have to pay as much attention to what I was doing. I could just set it…and forget it! That’s what crusin’ is all about! So, after about a year or two, I finally gave in…and got it fixed (I still hate admitting that).
Cruise control can be a great advantage and help while driving. However, there was a time when I thought it was fine to let my faith just ‘cruise’ along in much the same way. It is easy to do. We get into a rut where we want to set our faith and forget it. We don’t want to think about our faith much. Perhaps we go to church when it works out, serve on a committee if it doesn’t meet too much, or say a prayer before we eat if no one is looking. We cruise along the faith highway (“faith highway”…I know that was pretty bad) doing just enough to not feel guilty. We feel like we are cruising.
I got my cruise control fixed because I thought a long trip was more comfortable with it. Yet, that is the problem with putting our faith on cruise control. It becomes a comfortable faith. We all want comfort, but when our faith is too comfortable, we end up missing God.
