{"id":693,"date":"2010-01-19T16:02:48","date_gmt":"2010-01-19T16:02:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/graceepc.org\/?p=693"},"modified":"2010-01-19T16:02:48","modified_gmt":"2010-01-19T16:02:48","slug":"the-analogy-of-great-price","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.choosingcomedy.com\/?p=693","title":{"rendered":"The Analogy of Great Price"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

I have been driving for 32 years. I fancy myself a good driver because in 32 years I have never been pulled over by a police officer. Never pulled over, never ticketed.<\/p>\n

I had a spotless driving record. And I was proud of that. Who wouldn’t be?<\/p>\n

My fantasy ended Monday. Monday I was heading into work, enjoying a new CD, singing and in a very good mood. As I approached 12 Mile I saw flashing lights in my rear-view mirror. I pulled over. Turned off the CD. Rolled my window down and waited.<\/p>\n

The officer approached and asked if I knew why he was pulling me over. I had no idea. He told me I was speeding, going 15 mph above the posted limit. He asked for my driver’s license, registration, proof of insurance. I found them all and handed them to him. He asked me about my driving record and I told him, it was spotless. This was the first time I had ever been pulled over. He walked back to his car.<\/p>\n

He returned with a ticket. Graciously, he gave me a ticket that would not show up on my record with points, it would not trigger notice to my insurance company. It would, however, cost me a good deal of money.<\/p>\n

And so it ended. My beautiful driving record that had no tickets was gone. Ruined.<\/p>\n

Life is like a driving record. It can appear spotless, perfect, without trespass.<\/p>\n

But you know, just because I had never received a traffic ticket, didn’t mean I had never deserved one. I had never been caught- speeding, or making a mistake or breaking the law. It didn’t mean I was a perfect driver, it meant I looked like a perfect driver.<\/p>\n

Sometimes we can look pretty good. That doesn’t mean we are. Just because people don’t see all my thoughts\/actions, doesn’t mean all my thoughts\/actions are right. We can look good, but that doesn’t mean we are good.<\/p>\n

My “perfect” driving record, of which I was so proud, was a sham. I don’t know how fast I was driving Monday, only because I was too busy singing to notice. But I know I have driven above the posted limit on other days.<\/p>\n

I deserved that ticket, and I have deserved many more. How happy I am that I have not received as many tickets as I deserve. I couldn’t afford it!<\/p>\n

I can’t afford to pay the penalty for my life record either. Thank God I don’t have to.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I have been driving for 32 years. I fancy myself a good driver because in 32 years I have never been pulled over by a police officer. Never pulled over, never ticketed. I had a spotless driving record. And I was proud of that. Who wouldn’t be?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-693","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2O0qX-bb","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.choosingcomedy.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/693","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.choosingcomedy.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.choosingcomedy.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.choosingcomedy.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.choosingcomedy.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=693"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.choosingcomedy.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/693\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.choosingcomedy.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=693"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.choosingcomedy.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=693"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.choosingcomedy.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=693"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}