December 3, 2008
"Gang Aft A-gley"

For in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith. For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. Galatians 3:26-27

Robert Burns said it: "The best-laid schemes o' mice an' men Gang aft a-gley, An'lea'e us nought but grief an' pain For promis'd joy!"

I don't know about the plans of mice and men, but the plans of Elizabeth Ferris of Indiana went a-gley. Excuse me, her plans went wrong.

For almost ten years, Elizabeth has had vanity license plates, which she used to make a Christian witness.

Her license plate read: BE GODS.

This year, the Bureau of Motor Vehicles rejected her renewal request as being "inappropriate due to form or content." That was rather strange since the Indiana Supreme Court just allowed the state to have "In God We Trust" on a license plate.

As I thought about this story, I could understand how some might consider the license plate to be badly chosen. Think about those words again and remember there are no apostrophes on license plates: BE GODS.

Depending on your point of view, you could -- like Elizabeth -- be saying we need to depend on the Lord, upon the sacrifice made through the life, death, and resurrection of the Redeemer.

But, you could also conclude Elizabeth was encouraging each and every one of us to be little gods or masters of our fate, independent from the Lord. (This is something she definitely is not doing.)

Yup, our best-laid plans just might gang aft a-gley.

Still, I encourage all of the Daily Devotion readers to keep up their witness. There is an unbelieving world out there, and we need to share the Savior whenever, wherever, and to whomever we can. Then, having done so, we put the matter in the Holy Spirit's hands. He'll make sure it doesn't gang aft a-gley.

THE PRAYER: Dear Lord, make all I do and say a witness to Jesus. Let those with whom I come into contact look past my shortcomings and sins and see the Savior whose suffering, sacrifice, and resurrection have freed me. In His Name, I ask this. Amen.