What Should You Do?

The following is actually “borrowed” from an illustration Dan Shipley once used in a sermon. As you will see, it is intended to help someone get over the huge hurdle of feeling that if they obey the truth, they have learned they will be condemning some loved one who did not obey it.

I can only try to understand how hard it is for someone who has to deal with that issue, and I know Satan has used it countless times to keep someone from obeying the gospel.

The illustration went something like this...

Suppose you are running a business where you sell fabric by the yard. It’s the business you inherited from your father. One day a man comes into your shop and says that he is a government inspector, who has come to examine how you run your business. One of the questions he asks is, “How do you measure fabric when you’re selling it?”

You show him two marks on the counter top, and you say, “Well this is very old-fashioned, but it’s how my dad did it. These marks are 36 inches apart, and that’s how I measure fabric.”

The man takes a measuring tape from his pocket and measures the marks. What he says next is a bit shocking, “Sir, I hate to tell you this, but your dad made those marks 34 inches apart, not 36!”

Now the question is: What should you do?

First of all, you know that your dad was completely honest. It was a simple mistake that he made in putting the marks two inches too close together. What would dad do right now if he were living? Of course he would correct the mistake and put the marks where they should be. And so what are you going to do? 

I think that’s a great illustration. Whenever we learn some truth that perhaps someone we loved did not see, we should accept that truth and act upon it.

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