Orange ya glad Jesus died and rose again?

I think I saw this on Campbell Live?  Hmmm, well anyway, John Campbell was interviewing a woman recently who had been stopped by police and given a ticket for going through an orange light.  To our ears this sounds like madness and the police being unfair again, right?  "Hey Mr. Policeman, we’re allowed to go through orange lights if we like, that’s what the road code says doesn’t it?" 

While I was sitting on my couch self-righteously defending this woman a representative from the AA was asked to comment on the situation.  He explained that the orange light is a grace period.  This means the orange light is designed for drivers to have time to stop safely before the light turns red and they’re not allowed to go through the intersection.  It is dependent on a driver’s good sense to make the call but it’s also dependent on the police to make the call whether someone was in fact using the orange light as it’s intended to be used or abusing it.  The AA man said the problem with the orange light system is that people are abusing the grace period and instead of determining whether they can stop safely or not they are using it as a last minute rush to get through the intersection.  This leads to people going through intersections on red lights which is clearly against the law and dangerous. 

“There’s a blog post right there” I thought.  

You know it’s like King David in the Old Testament.  A friend asked me “how could God overlook the fact that David had so many wives and concubines when it was clearly against the law and yet still call him a man after his own heart?”  And we all self righteously agree “there, see?  He was abusing grace.  What a wicked man, how could God save him?”  

To which I would answer – because he can save us.  We are no less guilty than King David despite the fact that I’m sure you have only had one husband or wife at a time.  Every day in very many but very “little” ways that we hardly notice (white lies, prideful thoughts, self righteous despising of our neighbour) you and I will sin until we die.  Heck!  We will probably commit some of the “bigger” sins too much like the David and the Bathsheba episode.  Look it up, there’s some sordid stuff in there.  And all this sin in our lives; past, present and future put Jesus through unimaginable pain and suffering and death on a Roman cross.  Therefore to continue doing these acts is a gross abuse of His grace toward us.

And yet each day instead of resisting the temptation to sin I rush into it just like I rush through orange lights.  So can God call me a “woman after his own heart?”  Yes, He can!  Because being a Christian (or a person after God’s own heart) is not about never abusing God’s grace (never sinning again) but it’s about realizing how close I come daily to having the divine Mr. Policeman pull me over and punish me for my flagrant abuse of Him and crying out to him [again] for mercy and incredibly receiving it again because Jesus took my punishment for me once and for all.  It is finished.

The Lord is merciful and gracious;
    slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.
 He will not always chide,
    nor will he keep his anger forever.
 He does not deal with us according to our sins,
    nor repay us according to our iniquities.
 For as high as the heavens are above the earth,
    so great is his steadfast love toward those who fear him;
as far as the east is from the west,
    so far does he remove our transgressions from us.
 As a father shows compassion to his children,
    so the Lord shows compassion to those who fear him.
For he knows our frame;
    he remembers that we are dust. 

Psalm 103