GENEralities

Nerves of steel. That’s what it takes to drive at the speed limit these days. I said that to Jude, my wife, this summer as we were driving home from our holiday in Prince Albert National Park, Saskatchewan. You should write about that, she said. So here I am.

As a rule, I try and drive at the speed limit. I do this because of what Paul writes in Romans 13 about submitting to governing authorities, because I don’t want to have to pay speeding fines, and because it should make for a more relaxing drive. But it doesn’t. Some drivers seem to take my traveling at the speed limit as a malicious attempt to stop them from getting to their destination a few minutes before me. I often have someone following me too closely for safety. I also have to deal with impatient and dangerous attempts to overtake me. I’ve been honked at and given the finger as impatient drivers have swept past. And it’s not just a problem on the highways. I’ve also been tail-gated in playground zones. It’s unsettling and sometimes downright frightening. That’s why I need nerves of steel to drive at the speed limit these days.

What are speed limits for? They exist to ensure we reach our destinations in reasonable time and without harming (or being harmed by) our fellow travelers along the way. That’s a good thing.

But there is something powerful in us human beings which drives us not only to go beyond limits set for our protection and good, but also to devise very heart-felt and compelling reasons why it is a good thing to do so.

We do it for excitement. The sheer thrill of speed and risk stimulates our senses.

We do it to win. The need to get there first is compelling and we just love to beat the system.

We do it to create an image—to be seen as a bit of a rebel, a bit of a James Dean, a free spirit. We all laugh at tales of devil-may-care high-speed exploits. A little risk, even of injury and death for ourselves and others, seems acceptable, even desirable—life enhancing.

We do it because we know better, and we do it just because we’re not supposed to.

The truth of the matter is, the faster we go, the greater the risks. The evidence can be seen all along our highways. Those little white crosses in the ditch surrounded by tired looking flowers, the coal-black skid-marks of emergency stops, the mangled carcasses of unfortunate animals lying as if tossed aside by the speed of our passing, all attest to the potential dangers of travelling on the highway.

As I ponder all this while nervously keeping an eye on my rear-view mirror, it occurs to me that I am in the middle of a very similar experience on my journey as an Anglican Christian. I try to live at the biblical “speed limit.” This is also what I preach and teach. I find I need nerves of steel to do so, because other Anglicans, many in positions of influence and authority, are breathing down my neck, impatient with the posted biblical limits on things like the authority of Scripture, salvation, worship, sexuality and marriage. Already, some have over-taken me, discarding such limits. I feel as if I have even been given the figurative finger by some who see me, and people who believe as I do, as too slow, in the way and not moving with the times.

What are biblical “speed limits” for? They, too, exist to ensure we reach a destination—an heavenly one—in reasonable time, without harming (or being harmed by) our fellow travelers along the way. Biblical limits are lovingly and carefully designed to keep us securely in relationship with our God through Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit throughout the journey. They are not designed to be restrictive or to cause pain.

It seems to me that if we Anglican followers of Jesus continue to revise or ignore the posted biblical limits given by a wise and loving God, there is a serious possibility that our Anglican way will become more and more like our highways: marked by pain, suffering and death, as people venture into ever more risky spiritual and sexual behaviour. Meanwhile there is the very real danger that those who are keeping to the “speed limit” will “get in the way” and be “tossed aside.”

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