Bells and Whistles by Dr. Juan Harrison
Bells and Whistles
Everything seems to have em. Entire cities have got em. You can’t drive your car without a “ding ding” going off telling you to fasten your seat belt. You almost drop the pot of boiled chicken as the local disaster sirens are going off across town with their regularly scheduled practice runs. Your radio and TV have to have their interruptions right in the middle of the shows as you’re reminded, “This is only a test.”
Humans have got their own set of alarms and whistles and bells that go off when trouble or danger is near. Unfortunately, either our brain, hearing, or both have a tendency to not pick up on the warnings. Believers have even got their own spiritual GPS designed to be a comforter but often relegated to useless status as we hear only what we want.
Countries, companies, churches, marriages, and individuals all have warning systems to alert them as trouble is approaching. Unfortunately, too often the ox is not just in the ditch but is belly deep in quicksand with no rope, horse, or rider handy to pull it out.
Most people live or have lived where smoke detectors and carbon monoxide sensors are attached to ceilings for safety purposes. Any number of us have heard that high piercing beep warning us it’s time to change the batteries. Your land line phone may beep as it’s dying off the hook. Your cell phone tells you it needs a charge if you want to use it much longer.
Unfortunately, us humans are better at getting the oil changed or tires rotated regularly than we are at reading the signs in our relationships with others. Complicated as they are, we can’t say that women don’t warn us. Dumb as us guys are, we’d never survive on the frontier if our ability to read woman signs depended on our survival.
Our children send out coded messages. Our spouses give us a look and stares. Friends may try to tell us by not telling us. People looking to have affairs give out signs and signals. Predators constantly prowl around trapping foolish victims in their indiscriminate nets. Unfortunately, too many of us who ought to know better have turned off the alarms or not recharged the spiritual batteries needed to protect us from the roaring lion going about seeking whom it may devour. It’s a scary world out there. If we know what’s good for us, we better wake up and smell the roses and change the batteries for good measure.
By Dr. Juan Harrison
