Most cars have a blind spot……actually two of them. They are located in the lane beside you just behind your field of vision as you look down the road and just in front of what you can see in your mirrors. These blind spots aren’t very big……..just big enough to fit a semi tractor into. Furthermore, when you change lanes you move your car right into that blind spot. If you don’t turn your head and visually check your blind spot…….and if there is a car ….or a semi…..there……you are probably going to have an accident…….an accident that was entirely preventable.
The problem is that many, perhaps most, drivers either don’t believe in the blind spot or are too lazy to check it. You know this. How many times have you been driving down a lane and had to jam on your brakes when the driver in the next lane pulled into your lane? It’s not that he was being a jerk. He did it because he didn’t see you…….because he didn’t look. He didn’t check his blind spot.
So….what is the point?
The point is that if you don’t believe in something and it is true……you do not escape the consequences. The fact that you don’t believe in the blind spot…….or that you don’t care enough about it to check it……..will not save you from the collision.
But driving tips are probably not what you came here for.
You may have guessed…….this blog is about hell.
You see, hell is the moral equivalent to your blind spot. It is a hazard that is right beside you. You encounter hell as the result of a conscious decision that you have made about how you are going to run your life. You can easily avoid hell if you plan ahead.
But.
If you deny its existence.
If you ignore it.
If you don’t give it any thought.
If you don’t plan ahead and take precautions.
Sooner or later you will encounter it…….probably not today. Just as when you drive, everything will be fine for thousands of lane changes. Everything will be fine….until it isn’t. And then it will be too late.
The lesson:
Ignoring or denying a reality does not save you from the consequences of that reality.
Hell is not real, you say?
No problem……keep changing lanes without checking that blind spot. Everything will be fine.
Until it isn’t.
The rich man also died and was buried. In Hades, where he was in torment, he looked up and saw Abraham far away, with Lazarus by his side. So he called to him, ‘Father Abraham, have pity on me and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, because I am in agony in this fire.’
“But Abraham replied, ‘Son, remember that in your lifetime you received your good things, while Lazarus received bad things, but now he is comforted here and you are in agony. And besides all this, between us and you a great chasm has been set in place, so that those who want to go from here to you cannot, nor can anyone cross over from there to us.’
Jesus describing hell, Luke 16: 24-25, ESV