KITT

Alright, alright… I admit that I am a diehard Knight Rider fan!  Back in the 1980’s when the original show was broadcast, it was definitely on our list of “must watch” TV shows.  You could almost say that our two older kids were weened on that program… and the younger two received the same experience through the marvel of DVD’s in the 1990’s!

In 1983 when Piper and I set our faith to purchase her a new car for her, we almost immediately set our sights on a new black (of course) Pontiac Firebird.  We looked around for months and finally talked to a car salesman friend of Piper’s Dad.  They did not have a black one on the lot, so the salesman said he would put our some inquires at other Pontiac dealers. 

We left the dealership that day with great expectations.  Soon after though, things seemed to hit a snag and the more we thought about it, the more we realized that a Firebird was probably not the best car for a Mom with 2 kids in baby seats!  But thanks-be-to-God, a few weeks later we discovered a brand-new 1983 maroon Pontiac Bonneville wagon that had just been driven off the transport onto the lot in front of the local Cadillac/Pontiac dealership… and the rest is history!

I was not a fan of the multiple spin-offs following the original Knight Rider… until… the 2008 TV movie and resulting series which had direct involvement from David Hasselhoff  - the original Michael Knight!  I now own both series on DVD and still enjoy watching them… and while I never got to have a Firebird, I did end up years later with a like new 1980's Camaro and after that a Mustang GT that was a year newer than the customized Mustang used in the 2008 series!

I thought of one of the episodes from the newer series this morning as I was reading Paul’s words in I Corinthians chapter five.  In this chapter the Apostle is showing some tough love as he was attempting to help the church in Corinth deal with some problems that they were experiencing.  While discussing how to treat Christians who tended to live as Non-Christians, he used the analogy of the effects of using yeast in the making of unleavened bread… which he clearly stated… doesn’t work!  In I Corinthians 5:6, he summed up his correction by stating, “Do you not know that a little yeast corrupts the whole of the dough?” (Weymouth) 

In other words, the addition of the wrong ingredient can mess up the results of the finished product.  In mathematical terms one could also say that an incorrect factor introduced into an equation will result in an incorrect answer.  In the 2008 Knight Rider TV series episode that I mentioned, one of FLAG’s genius team members was attempting to figure out a difficult equation/clue that was left at a kidnapped boy’s home, while Michael Knight and KITT (the Knight Industries Three Thousand) were out on the road following other clues.

Billy (a slightly out-of-step genius with multiple doctorates) finally deduces that the equation is actually a set of geographic coordinates that point to the location of both the kidnapped boy and the financial treasure that the bad guys were seeking.  Billy quickly runs through the numbers in the equation and announces to the team over their comms, that the location is in a different country on the other side of the world.  This news frustrates everyone until KITT (with the voice of the super-car) declares that Billy accidently inserted an incorrect number into one side of the equation and that the location was actually very close to where Michael and KITT were.

So, needless to say, Michael pushes some buttons on KITT’s complex dashboard, the car instantly morphs into super-pursuit mode and blasts down the road arriving at the correct destination in the nick of time for Michael and KITT to save the day!  One of the many things that I appreciated about this show, was that you could always be assured, that by the end of the program, that the good guys always won!

I’ve also come to appreciate that as we follow the plan of God in our lives, stay obedient to Him and His Word and be aware of inserting the correct factors into the equations of our stands of faith… that God always plans for us… His kids (His good guys) to also win!

As I was thinking on all of this the other morning while taking Fiver for a walk, it suddenly dawned on me, why some folks had such a difficult time supporting us in our stand of faith during Piper’s final eight years.  As we walked on that crisp, windy morning, I began to picture a white board before me with two almost identical sets of equations.  The deeper I looked, I realized that Piper’s and my name were written across the top of one of the equations while the names of the other folks headed the other equation.

While closely observing and comparing each equation, line by line, word by word, I suddenly saw that they were not identical.  I won’t divulge specifically what the difference was, but just say that the side with the other names had included a personal, natural factor, while ours was noticeably void of any factor with dependence on the natural world.  And I have to admit… that it hit me pretty hard as I realized that their equation couldn’t work the way it was written… no wonder they were so despondent!

That reality instantly brought me back to today, and got me wondering if there might be some incorrect factors… factors in the equations of the things that I am believing for right now, that work to destroy my faith rather than strengthen or propel it toward its excepted result?  Is there even a little bit of yeast that is corrupting my faith?

I think that this is a good question for each of us to ask ourselves on a regular basis. Wouldn’t you agree? 

With everything going on in our world today… I NEED my faith to work for me!  I don’t want to put in all kinds of hard work only to end up with failure… simply because I had one wrong number or ingredient, or thought, or activity or incorrect understanding that caused me to fall short of the mark.

HOW ABOUT YOU?

Have a great week, check the factors in the equations of your stands of faith… and keep EXPECTING God’s best for your life!