A wealthy couple desired to hire a driver to get them around town. The wife asked people she knew and she put notices online. The applicants were screened, and four suitable candidates came by for the final selection.
She called the prospective drivers to her balcony and pointed out a brick wall alongside the driveway. Then she asked them, “How close do you think you could come to that wall without scratching my car?”
The first man felt that he could drive within a foot of the wall without damaging the car. The second woman felt sure that she could come within six inches. The third man believed that he could get within three inches.
The fourth candidate said, “I do not know how close I could come to the wall without damaging your car. Instead, I would try to stay as far away from that wall as I could.” A God Notice
This candidate had a different focus. She understood that true skill in driving is not based so much on the ability to steer the car to a narrow miss as on the ability to keep a wide margin of safety.
Like the fourth candidate, there are many aspects of our human nature, such as sexual temptation, that are best dealt with by keeping a wide margin of safety.
When we decide what to do in a doubtful situation, not knowing where it will all lead us, we should be as wise as that fourth candidate. A consideration this Lenten Day.
The ability to get into trouble and the ability to get out of trouble are seldom present in the same person.
With help from Michael P. Green
