John Dekker's Day

4:35PM - Being a Christian in your car #7: Sins, Mistakes and Accidents

Last post I concluded by pointing out that stupidity is often a sin, and that deserves further clarification. It's a sin if we ought to know better. It's a sin when we wilfully reject the right course of action. But we need to carefully distinguish between sins and mistakes. This becomes especially important when we have an accident. It may be helpful to think of four categories of involvement in a road accident:

i) Sometimes it's simply not our fault. One example might be a car coming from the opposite direction veering into our lane and causing a head-on collision. In that case, there is nothing the we could done to prevent it – and often we need to be reminded of that fact.

ii) Sometimes it is our fault, but there is no direct sin involved. A slow reaction time is not sinful! This can be hard to deal with emotionally and spiritually, because there is nothing to confess, and yet we still feel guilty.

iii) Sometimes an accident is clearly caused by our sin. Drink-driving would be a clear example of this. Here we need to repent of our sin (confess it and turn from it) and move on, while acknowledging that there may still be consequences to face.

iv) Sometimes we are in an accident because of our foolishness. This would include going over an advisory speed limit. We may not have committed a crime, and it may not be obvious to us whether we have sinned. Indeed, this is the sort of thing that can keep a person awake at night. It is good to review the situation to see if there is sin to confess, but sometimes we need to confess unknown sin, and then move on.

Finally, as in so many aspects of our lives, we walk a fine line theologically. On the one hand, we need to reject legalism in all its forms, while on the other we need to be aware of just how far short we fall of what God requires of us. Earlier this year I noticed for the first time how the Westminster Larger Catechism deals with the duties required by the sixth commandment ("You shall not steal") – it includes "a sober use of meat, drink medicine, sleep, labour and recreations" (Q & A 135). Little did they know how important getting enough sleep would be to preserving life in the age of automobiles...