Lead me, O Lord, in Your righteousness because of my enemies; make Your way straight before me. Psalm 5:8

Do you have a really good friend? I mean a really good friend?

The reason I ask is this: if you are going to try this experiment, you are going to need a really good friend.

The experiment to which I refer is one done by Jan Souman for the Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics. The experiment was simply this: can people walk in a straight line.

Souman took people to a park, to a beach, to the Sahara desert, and to the Bienwald forest of Germany. Most of the time he blindfolded his volunteers and asked them to walk a straight line.

They couldn't do it.

If the sun was out, that helped people, but if it was a cloudy day, they generally ended up going round and round. The best straight lines looked sort of like a corkscrew.

Now if you're curious as to why people can't go in a straight line, nobody can tell you. All the scientists know is this: it can't be done.

I suppose that finding isn't much of a surprise to the Lord. God asked Adam and Eve to walk a straight line and they failed. Since then, to this day, humans haven't successfully done that which God asked of them.

This is precisely why we needed Someone who could walk that straight line on our behalf. Jesus Christ, God's Son, our Savior did exactly that. He kept the commandments we had broken. He said "no" to the temptations that had tripped us up. He defeated death, which was our final demise.

Now, because Jesus has walked that straight line successfully, we are given faith. We are blessed with forgiveness, and we know we will be taking a straight line to heaven when we leave this world.

THE PRAYER: Dear Lord Jesus, we thank You for doing all that we could not. Now we ask that the Holy Spirit will help us walk as best we can the straight line which will show our appreciation and thanks to You. In Your Name, I pray this. Amen.

Many thanks to Clifford, J. Baumer, PE, environmental engineer, for sharing not just the story on which this devotion is based -- he also shared the idea of the message.

Thanks, Cliff.

Pastor Klaus

In Christ I remain His servant and yours,

Today's Bible Readings: Zechariah 5-8    Jude

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