Scooter Mayhem

Scooter Mayhem

By Ryan Davis, Class of 2013

                    Manassas, Virginia                   

        

       Who can discern his errors? Forgive my hidden faults. Keep your servant also from willful sins; may they not rule over me. Then will I be blameless, innocent of great transgression. Psalms 19:12-13

            On a sunny summer day in Taiwain, where my family lived as missionaries, I asked my father if I could go on a scooter ride with some friends. He agreed to let me go if he and my brother could also come along. My parents and I had a bad feeling about this trip, but we just pushed our feelings aside and decided that we needed some fresh air.  So, with my brother on the back of my scooter, we set off to have a good time. Once we got on the road we stopped to get some gas. As we were pulling out of the gas station my dad turned to me and said, "Be careful, keep your distance, and be aware of your surroundings." Now I, being the confident teen that I am, just rolled my eyes and told him that I already knew how to drive.

            About a mile down the road I came to an abrupt stop in front of a red light and then CRASH! Suddenly, I was skidding on the ground. I remember picking myself up off the ground, then seeing the mangled motorbike and a crowd of on-lookers checking on us.

            What had happened was that my friend on the scooter behind me didn't keep his distance and ended up running into me at about 30-40 kilometers per hour. Once he crashed into me, my brother flew over my head, pushing me into the scooter. Then I fell on the pavement half sliding/half rolling in and out of the path of an oncoming car.  I was stunned at how deadly the accident could have been. Only by God's grace did my brother and I come out of that crash with only a few scratches and bruises.

            Our text says that we sin without knowing it. Pretty pathetic isn't it? We have grown so accustom to sinning that we don't even think about what we’re doing! To stop, we need to give our hearts to God and trust that he will help us through it. We need to have a willing heart to stop sinning. When my dad told me to be careful, I ignored his warnings. I wasn't willing to accept the fact that I could mess up. I didn't think that I was going to crash. It's the same with sin. We don't think that we will sin. But we do. We need to have a willing heart to accept our faults and ask God to help us through it. I hope that you will have a willing heart to accept that you can mess up and believe that God will help you get through it in the future. Through God, all things are possible.