08/21/2026
Check out this story from Tim Wilkins of Cross Ministry:
An affluent, aristocratic woman reviews resumes from potential chauffeurs to drive her Rolls Royce. She narrows the applicants to three men and invites them to her palatial home. She escorts each one individually to her driveway and the brick wall beside it.
Then she asks, “If you were driving my Rolls, how close do you think you could come to that brick wall without scratching my car?”
The first applicant says, “I can drive within a foot of that wall and not damage your Rolls.”
She brings out the second applicant and asks “If you were driving my Rolls, how close do you think you could come to that brick wall without scratching my car?” He scratches his head and says, “I can drive within six inches of that wall and not damage your car.”
She invites the third applicant and asks, “If you were driving my Rolls, how close do you think you could come to that brick wall without scratching my car?”
He does not hesitate: “Ma'am, I do not know how close I could come to the wall without damaging your car, but if I was driving your car, I would stay as far away as possible from the wall so as not to damage your car.”
Guess who got the job?
Proverbs 27:11 (NIV) says, “the prudent see danger and take refuge, but the simple keep going and pay the penalty. The purpose of guardrails is not to see how close you can get to the edge without falling off.
When addressing temptation, the point is not how close one can get to the temptation without getting “scratched,” but staying as far away as possible.
-Mike Johnson
