We know what it means to crash and burn. It’s a modern term that involves fast machines, liquid propellant, and unexpected—and very abrupt—stops. We fly high and fast, and when it ends, we are caught in the flaming aftermath of destruction, tortured and screaming out in agony.
We use the same phrase to describe relationships, where it’s all about passion, but there are no underpinnings of civility and sacrifice. In the work place, we crash and burn when we run roughshod over people in the name of greed, only to find when we’re in need that we’ve betrayed everyone.
Even kings can crash and burn. Read in Daniel 5:1-31. It tells the story of King Belshazzar and a great feast. A finger writes on the wall: Mene, Mene, Tekel, Parsin. Daniel the prophet interprets the words, telling Belshazzar that he has run roughshod through God’s patience in the name of greed, and he’s about to crash and burn. That very night Belshazzar the Chaldean was killed and the kingdom given to Darius the Mede.
We are all in Belshazzar’s precarious position. We are born into sin, and if we continue without regards to the message of Christ, we will wear on God’s patience until we crash and burn. Yet, there is a way to bring life out of destruction.
Romans 5:12 gives us our starting position:
“Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned—”
Romans 3:23 makes sure we understand no man is an exception:
“For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God…”
John 3:16 shows us a better way:
“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.”
Revelation 21:3 is our voice of victory:
“And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, ‘Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God.’ ”
Mene, Mene, Tekel, Parsin. Crash and burn, caught up in death and destruction, plummeting into the depths of hell. Or, and this is the better way, God will be with us, and he will be our God. We have time to choose, and that time is now.
God brings us life when we choose to turn from the destructive path of sin.
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