by Kelly Moran

for 18 October 1995

Hip! Hip! Hooray!
How many cheerleaders does it take to make a Volkswagen Beetle start belching smoke into the air?

Twelve.

Last month, twelve cheerleaders from Buena High School in Ventura, California, crammed into the Bug during a contest. Eleven girls got in. Everything was fine. At twelve, the sparks began to fly.

Remember the Beetle? The battery goes on the floor in the passenger compartment rather than the tiny engine compartment (which is in the rear).

The weight in the car forced the seat's metal springs onto the terminals of the uncovered battery. If I remember my High School Physics class, the combined mass of twelve California High School cheerleaders is probably over 100 pounds!

So the Associated Press went out to interview the Assistant Principal. Perhaps the Principal was unavailable, since that nasty incident in the goldfish swallowing contest. Jim Morgan, Assistant Principal, said, "It was like turning on a switch to a heater. The springs got red hot."

The car began to fill with smoke.

Morgan continues, "One of the cheerleaders began screaming and all quickly got out of the car."

I would much rather have seen it myself than to hear this guy's thrilling description.

Are there going to be pictures in the yearbook?

A Good Idea
It seemed like a good idea at the time. And, although I make light of the events that occurred that Friday night, someone could have gotten seriously hurt. It sounds a little like something in a Stephen King novel: everything is fine; small-town normal, and then the world seems to fall apart. An innocent game becomes a death-trap.

Spiritual choices are not an innocent game. The choices that we make to seek the heart of God (or not) are the only choices that have eternal consequences.

The wrong choice. It may seem like a good idea at the time, but now someone is screaming and you're caught in a Spiritual death-trap.

Now, don't give up reading here. If you see yourself in the last paragraph, you desperately need to keep reading:

The Good News
You are not alone.

Paul contends that we all make choices that put our souls in jeopardy. "Therefore no one will be declared righteous in his sight by observing the law," he wrote, "rather, through the law we become conscious of sin." (Romans 3:20) We simply cannot be good enough!

God gave His law that we might know and understand what he desires for us. We became "conscious of sin" because His law tells us about sin. But no one can keep a set of God's perfect laws.

Let me repeat: No one can keep God's perfect laws!

No one. No person. No church. No preacher. No one!

So, God sent to the earth the only person who did not deserve punishment according to His unmatchable purity. He sent His only Son, Jesus.

Jesus came to "open eyes that are blind, to free captives from prison..." (Isaiah 42:7) He came to "bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners..." (Isaiah 61:1)

O, how I long for release from the darkness in my life. Although I am a child of God, I still feel like a prisoner. If only I would consistently look to Jesus Christ for freedom, but this is not easy.

What is easy is what Christ has done. I only make it hard in my own life. Christ has claimed the victory in my life! If I would only realize it.

Paul wrote, "Christ is the end of the law so that there may be righteousness for everyone who believes." (Romans 10:4)

Jesus doesn't condemn us for our poor choices. He promises to redeem those who make this choice: The choice to believe in Him.

God, it seemed like a good idea, but...

Published weekly for 4 years and 2 weeks.

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All Scripture references are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version (unless otherwise noted).

Copyright 1995 by Kelly Moran.