monthly focus ~ lesson from a taxi meter

LESSON FROM A TAXI METER

“Taxi! You need taxi? I have meter!”

The word ‘meter’ was spoken as though he knew it was magic. We followed the man to his cab, where he pointed out the small box on the dash. We made him understand where we were going and set out, trusting he would get us across town to our apartment.
 
The town was in the Far East. Getting across town when you do not speak the language is an adventure in itself, but that is not the point of the story.

This major metropolitan area has both licensed and ‘wildcat’ taxis. The licensed cabs have meters and standard charges – the wildcatters take you where you want to go and tell you what they want you to pay.  We had managed to find at least one of them who also had a meter.

As we rode, I watched as the display performed some very irregular digital math that cost  us twice what it should have when we got home. From its erratic jumps, it obviously did not ‘meter’ anything. I do not know where the button was, but the driver controlled it.  The meter said what the driver wanted it to say.

I was reminded that day that one of the hardest things about teaching the Scripture is keeping your finger off that button – the one that makes it say what you want. We tend to read what we know, cherish, or fear into every passage –- especially the hard-to-understand ones. In many cases, what we want it to say is not wrong in itself, but it sets aside the message God intended, something that we need to hear. The result is a church that is limited in its spiritual growth and weakened in its ability to defend against error, because there are truths the church does not hear.

This became a theme during our last visit. In every place we ministered, we were told that the great need is to know with certainty what God is saying to us in His Word. As long as that need is not addressed, Christians and churches are vulnerable. It weighs on us heavily that the largest group of Christians in the world, and one of the most oppressed, faces this on a continual basis.  We ask God to help us “keep the finger off the button” so that the Word it will meter truth accurately.

       
Mark Fehrman
Tri-M--Eurasia