By Jim Denison
A piece of steel the size of a postage stamp is making global news. Toyota has been in the headlines for weeks with massive recalls and safety concerns. The company has recalled more than 5.3 million cars, first to correct a floor mat problem and then to fix sticking accelerator pedals.
Now the company’s press release promises that instillation of a “precision-cut steel reinforcement bar” will solve the acceleration problem. This “reinforcement bar” is a thin steel shim that mechanics position inside the gas pedal mechanism. The installation takes about 30 minutes. But the repercussions will reverberate for a long time to come.
Toyota’s U.S. sales dropped 16% in January; the company’s stock declined $21 billion in a single week. The total loss to Toyota will likely exceed $2 billion worldwide, including repair costs and lost output and sales.
Meanwhile, Jenny Sanford is back in the news. Last June her husband, South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford (R), admitted a longtime affair with a woman in Argentina. Now, in an interview with ABC’s Barbara Walters, she has called her failed marriage a “leap of faith.” She says that her husband refused to include a fidelity clause in their wedding vows and admits, “I questioned it, but I got past it … along with other doubts that I had.”
Gov. Sanford had been very public about his Christian commitment. As had Nevada Sen. John Ensign (R), now under investigation by the Senate Ethics Committee regarding his admitted affair with a staff member.
What do Toyota, the governor and the senator have in common?
Twenty-five years as a pastor taught me the truth of this maxim: Sin will always take you further than you wanted to go, keep you longer than you wanted to stay and cost you more than you wanted to pay. I’ve never met a person who intended to ruin his or her life. It’s the tiny transgressions, the minor deceptions, the trivial decisions that start the slide into the swamp. If we turn down the lights slowly enough, our eyes adjust to the dark. So do our souls.
Toyota’s problems apparently started years ago, when the company shifted its focus from quality to market share. The governor and the senator had presidential aspirations before private sins led to public scandal. Former Sen. John Edwards (D-N.C.) was a candidate for vice president and a presidential contender before his affair with an aspiring actress made global news. Eliot Spitzer made a name for himself by prosecuting prostitution rings and was elected governor of New York. When his hotel rendezvous with a call girl was exposed in 2008, he was forced to resign. You may not remember Donna Rice, but her affair with Gary Hart cost him a chance at the presidency in 1987.
I can feel smug recalling their stories, but I am a sinner just the same as they are. I haven’t committed their sins, but they probably haven’t committed some of mine. Years ago I heard a preacher say something I haven’t forgotten: There is no sin I cannot commit. “There but for the grace of God go I” is a truism because it’s true.
James diagnosed our problem succinctly: “Each one is tempted when, by his own evil desire, he is dragged away and enticed. Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death” (James 1:14-15). As a counselor once told a group of men I taught, it’s not the first look that is the sin — it’s the second. It’s not the attraction, but the action.
How do we avoid the $21 billion shim? Martin Luther’s observation seems especially timely: “You can’t keep the birds from flying over your head, but you can keep them from nesting in your hair.” Paul agreed: “God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it” (I Cor. 10:13).
God will lead me, but I must follow. He’ll give me strength, but I must accept his aid. He’ll help me defeat my next temptation, but I must want to please him more than I want what sin offers. To quote Luther again, “If your head is made of butter, don’t sit near the fire.”
Where’s your fire?