Rubberneckers are the scourge of America’s highways and roads. When driving a car, they will slow their vehicles down to view roadway incidents and might even come to a dead stop if the elements of the incidents merit greater scrutiny. Whether it is the aftermath of a tragic accident, the identity of someone getting a ticket, or the lights flashing on an emergency vehicle by the side of the road, that draws their attention, the result is a long delay in the flow of traffic.

Even though most of us don’t like rubberneckers, we all tend to be one from time to time, even if it is just to see what made everyone else rubberneck. Rubbernecking is like yawning — contagious. Sometimes, you make it to the spot in the road where the rubbernecking began only to find there is nothing to rubberneck to see. No accident. No policemen. No construction. Nothing! As you drive off, you wonder, What was that all about?! You are so incredulous; you then rubberneck to look BACK at it.

Whatever provokes the rubberneck response, the outcome is usually the same –everything slows down and a traffic jam is created. People start driving down the shoulder to circumvent the line of traffic, tempers flare, and an unpleasant situation becomes worse.

Why are we so fascinated with something bad happening to someone else? The answer to this question could fill a college level course in psychology. It could be argued that rubbernecking is good because one or two rubberneckers may stop and intervene in some way, or, as some Christians have claimed, “I pause to look so I know better how to pray.” Hmmmn. If that’s your claim, please keep your eyes open and your foot on the gas. If you don’t, people may be rubbernecking to see what in the world happened to you.

How about rubbernecking in life off the highway? Someone makes a tragic mistake, is in trouble, or is in an accident. We stop to look, stare, and maybe even shake our heads. We hear about a Christian who stumbled, and our spiritual progress slows to a crawl as we stretch to get the full story. Do we really plan to help the discouraged believer, or do we just want to know what happened? We can also be tempted to rubberneck to recall, contemplate and realize our own mistakes, wounds and disappointments. Whether it is our own mishaps, or someone else’s, rubbernecking impedes progress. How can you tell if someone is a godly rubbernecker? They tend to get out of their car and help.

Phil 3:13-14 “Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus”

Let’s Keep pressing forward, Pastor Larry