The Penalty of Following The Crowd

After living in Taiwan for the past 27 years, I have caught a very bad habit.  I don't even blink when it comes to parking on the sidewalk of Taipei.  Oh... for those who don't know -- I have been riding a scooter for the past 7 years. I still pray whenever I am on a scooter. I still ride very slowly. (Sometimes my kids tell me that they can run faster!) I love riding my scooter around.  It's so convenient when I want to run errands or go and buy things at the local supermarket.  I love the convenience of being able to park it anywhere, or so I thought! 

About two weeks ago I took Abby to the local clinic to get her eyes check.  When I came out, I saw a little white paper taped to my scooter.  Hum?  What can that be?  The person next to me said, "Oh, you're going to get a ticket in the mail.  They came and took a picture of your scooter parked on the sidewalk.  It's going to cost about 300NT$."  What?  That's 10US$.  But there were about 20 other scooters parked on the sidewalk?!?!?!  As I looked, I noticed that every one of them also had a white paper taped on them. Just the other day, I received the ticket.  WAHHHHH... It was not for 300NT$. It was for 600NT$!!!!  For a person who strongly dislikes wasting, it was difficult to fork out the money. But I learned my lesson -- it isn't always wise to follow the crowd. 

I think that's true in life, too.
Swim upstream.
Make choices contrary to what's popular.
Do the godly thing.
Go the extra mile. 
And park where you're supposed to park.

Seek Him First!