Little White Sins

The other day, I needed to get from south Burlingame Road to Kansas Ave. near I-470. An efficient way, for me, is to take the I-470 exit from Burlingame Road and stay on the exit until it turns into the entrance ramp for Kansas Ave. Now, my understanding of traffic law is the driver merging needs to yield to any cars already in the lane.

You guessed it. Someone on I-470, slightly ahead of me, wanted to change lanes to exit onto Topeka Boulevard. As I was continuing on the Burlingame exit, I saw the car slightly ahead and to my left and wondered whether he wanted to merge. He didn’t have a turn signal on, but I was aware of the possibility. He did start his lane change, and I slowed down so that I wouldn’t hit him.

Theoretically, I could have honked, and a lot of people would agree that I would have been justified in being upset that the driver wasn’t aware (or worse, didn’t care) there was a car in the way of them changing lanes. I didn’t do either. I assumed the driver wasn’t intentionally trying to violate my rights. 

The driver got in front of me on the on-ramp and must have realized he had cut in front of me, so he waved a friendly wave out his window. I felt good because I didn’t let my emotions take me over and get mad at him. He appeared to realize he sinned against me and felt the need to express remorse or give thanks to me for understanding.

“Pray then like this: “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you, but if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.” - Matthew 6:9-15 ESV

Ironically, that same intersection of Kansas Ave. and the on-ramp to I-470 had some construction in the Kansas City exit lane and it was closed. More people take the I-470 West exit than the Kansas City exit lane, so it always backs up faster than the other exit lane. Unfortunately, a minority of people see the cars backing up and decide to try to accelerate out of the Kansas City exit lane and merge into the I-470 exit lane at the last second.

I happened to be first in the I-470 exit lane at the light waiting for it to turn green. I had five or six vehicles waiting behind me. The Kansas City exit was closed, so its lane had no one in it…until a van decided to do a whoopsie-do and accelerate to get in front of me when the light turned green. My reaction time is pretty good at seeing the moment the light turns green and my vehicle can move when I need it to. Yep, the light turned green and I accelerated hard and forced the van to merge in behind me. It was even more ironic in that a truck had turned right from Topeka Boulevard into the exit lane while the light was still red. My acceleration made me catch up to him, requiring me to slow down. The van honked at me thinking I slowed down to inconvenience him in merging behind me.

Did I sin?  Absolutely. 

As a society, we have a whole category of lies called little white lies, such as when you are asked if an outfit makes the person look fat. We are trained from a young age to use discretion and, in those situations, either avoid answering the question or lie to protect the other person’s feelings. But, the reality remains: if you lie, you lie. We desperately want to rationalize these little white lies and not accept all other lies from anyone else.

Little white sins are the same. We want to justify when we sin that we didn’t do anything wrong (illegal) and we’re just following the norm. Certainly, I don’t think I did anything illegal by hard accelerating out of the stoplight, but my intent was to judge and punish the driver next to me.

“Therefore let us not pass judgment on one another any longer, but rather decide never to put a stumbling block or hindrance in the way of a brother.” - Romans 14:13

“I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit—just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call— one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all. But grace was given to each one of us according to the measure of Christ’s gift.” - Ephesians 4:1-7

Like lies, little white sins are just as condemning as any other sins. I have a long way to go.