The Need For Speed

The other day while I was driving, I looked down at my odometer and discovered that I was traveling ten miles over the speed limit.  Feeling slightly convicted yet still feeling hurried, I reduced by speed by five miles.  "There", I thought, "That's better.  At least I'm not going over the speed limit by quite so much." Driving along and glancing down once more at the odometer, I again felt convicted.  Though I'd slowed my speed, I was still technically breaking the law.  As the conviction continued, I slowed my speed to that listed on the road signs.  As I continued my drive, I wrestled with obeying my conscious to adhere to the law and with my desire to get to my destination quicker, wrestled with being obedient and wanting to do things my way.  I wanted to justify my actions: everyone else is passing me, those who have taught me to drive informed me that speeding was acceptable as long as I didn't exceed five miles over, five or ten miles over really isn't that big of a deal, surely getting to my destination on time is more important than staying under a certain speed, etc etc.  

I feel like this is our response to sin in general.  We justify it; we look at what the culture tells us is acceptable rather than what God has taught us; we push the line, though just a little.  We prioritize our agenda over what God has commanded.  And so we begin the slow progression into sin, at first only exceeding it by five miles, then ten, until suddenly we find ourselves racing out of control, the thing we once drove now driving us.