Avoiding confusion

1 Corinthians 15:37 (NKJV)

37 If anyone thinks himself to be a prophet or spiritual, let him acknowledge that the things which I write to you are the commandments of the Lord.

The apostle wrote to the Corinthians about conduct within the church. There were some within the church that claimed to speak in tongues, a God given language that should be discernable to all men. Yet there were those who did not understand or were confused by the practice. Then there were those who claimed to know God’s truth as a prophet or a spiritualist. The apostle reminded all the people that God was not an author of confusion. Anything said and anything prophesized had to agree with the commandments of The Lord.

In the 2010 Vancouver Olympics, it happened to the Netherlands' superstar skater Sven Kramer. In the Olympic finals for the 10,000 meter race, he skated the 25 times around the rink so well that he set an Olympic record time of 12:54.50. He finished a full 4 seconds ahead of the second place skater. He was thrilled. The week before he had won gold in the 5,000 meter race. Now he had won a second Olympic gold medal, and done that representing a country that adores speed skating. He was a national hero!

But some of that glory quickly evaporated. Moments after Kramer crossed the finish line, his coach Gerard Kemkers, a former Olympian himself, approached him and broke the unthinkable news. Kramer had been disqualified from the race. With eight laps to go, he had changed lanes improperly. What made this disqualification so bitter for Kramer was that he had changed lanes for only one reason: his coach had told him to change lanes. In other words, he had no plans to change lanes until his coach called out for him to change. Worse yet, Kramer had never received lane-change directions from a coach in a race prior to that day!

In a situation when a split-second decision had to be made, Kramer trusted his coach instead of himself, and it cost him an Olympic gold medal. [Brian Hamilton, "One lane change changes everything," Chicago Tribune (2-24-10), sect. 2, pp. 1, 8]

In life if we have to trust anyone -- our trust needs to be in The Lord. For it only takes a second of confusion and the events of your life can unravel and change. While we need safe people in our lives that can help guide us, teach us and lend us wisdom, we should desire those people are trusting God for the answers. Others may fail us, but God will never let us down.