One of my selling points years ago when I was selling fasteners, was to remind body shops of how a $10,000 job would be held up waiting for a 50 cent bolt. I have seen shops pay $25 postage just to get a 50 cent bolt. There is always time to over react, when being prepared would have saved money and stress. So we always inventoried popular bolts and nuts to avoid this. Put the money in product rather than shipping. The job is not finished until it gets paid for, and can't be picked up and paid for if it isn't complete. It is not uncommon for larger shops to have $100's of thousands of work in process, with parts bills outstanding that don't get paid until they do. A cycle that when you are at any part of the food chain, you are in jeopardy of delayed payment just because of the next level of the food chain getting held up. Fortunately great profit margins are built into each level, but still most businesses live in an almost day to day, or job to job condition. Just like in real life, we are not prepared for the unexpected, and then immediately go to over react. Sadly, when we are warned, and still don't react, we still over react. And the crowd never gets smaller. Nor the over reaction!
Normalcy bias is a psychology term meaning that just because it has never happened before, or to you, it won't happen. Some great examples in history are Hitler, when the Jews still could leave and didn't, then those who had stayed due to wealth, position or power were shipped off to horror factories like Auschwitz and killed. Some 6 million in Germany alone! Or Katrina in 2005, when warned the levees would break, some stayed on dangerous ground because the levees were 100 years old, and had never broken before. Sure they'll hold again. We all know the results, and New Orleans residents still are reeling from them today. Just because you never saw it, understand it, or believe it doesn't make it not true! Maybe this is why we ignore so many warnings, then go to over react, along with others afterward. If we still are able to! Sail on the Titanic-it's unsinkable. Down to the too few life boats, and those who refused to fill them. Stupid hurts. And can be deadly.
My girlfriends best friend in high school wasn't me, her name was Donna, who drove 20 miles home one night with the low oil light on. The car finally died in front of her home, the engine seized, and when in between rantings from her dad of what happened, she said a light was on, but she was just obeying him. She had been told not to stop for any reason after dark. We all choose the most inconvenient times to obey our parents. All the engine knew was that it was now useless, a casualty that didn't have to occur. Perhaps the best advise coming out of Animal House was from Dean Wormer to Flounder, "Son, fat, drunk, and stupid is no way to go through life." Emphasize stupid.
Scoffers they are called. Proudly proclaiming to know more than God. Telling any who will listen, "where is the promise of His coming?" And then making fun of Christians who believe the Bible. Same as in Noah's time, and they were probably the first ones to beat on the ark after the door closed, and the rains came. Ignorance is not a new thing, a liberal thing, a political thing, or a non-believer thing. It is steeped in lack of trust in God, and based on pure pride-I know best. And just because in the US of A you have the right to be wrong doesn't excuse it. Jesus warns in Matthew 24 about the times to come, and they are here now. Strange weather, famine, rumors of wars, pestilence, food shortages, economic upheaval, families falling apart,and the dismantling of values. Riots in the street. Hate filled terrorists. Watch any news report, and without these items mentioned, you only have the commercials left. Not much better. Yet, normalcy bias runs rampant. And as I watched greed personified on Black Friday, I am saddened by how low we have fallen as a society. Just to save a few bucks, we have prostituted our values, and our character with it. "I saved $100 on a TV!" While the woman with her kids in the shadows is starving.
It is time to turn to God now. Trust Jesus. No one understands the things of God-He's God! Seek Him now while it is still easy. DON'T be like Steve Jobs. Brilliant inventor, and a man who almost single handedly changed the way we live, do business, listen to music, and communicate. A billionaire! But he didn't know Jesus. Yet, his story is the same as the poorest man on skid row. How much did Steve leave when he died? EVERYTHING! Just like you will, just like I will, when we die. It is where we spend time after death that separates us. I choose Jesus-and heaven. Sadly Steve didn't.
The warnings are there. The problems are here and growing. But so is the answer-Jesus Christ. Ignorance will not rescue you, only God will. If you could only talk to a person on the Titanic, a Jew from Germany, or a person from Katrina, you would find they have a different take on the warnings now. Even Donna would never drive again with a warning light on. All these disasters could have been avoided. So why are you waiting? If you think it is hard to trust God now, with all you have, it will only be harder when you have nothing, and are under persecution. Today is the day of salvation. Tomorrow is promised to no man. Leaving it all behind is better than being left behind. The choice is yours-as for me and my family, we choose Jesus! I hope you do too.
love with compassion,
Mike
matthew25biker.blogspot.com