Submit yourselves to every ordinance of man for the Lord’s sake. . . . — 1 PETER 2:13

At the age of forty-two or forty-three, one of my uncles was working at a power plant north of McKinney, Texas. He was one of the two men who worked the graveyard shift from midnight to 8:00 a.m. The following was painted on a wall at the plant: DO NOT PULL THIS SWITCH UNLESS THE RUBBER MAT IS IN PLACE.

At about 4:00 a.m. one morning, my uncle stepped outside to get a little fresh air. The grass was wet with dew so his feet got wet. He came back in and pulled that switch without the rubber mat being in place. Hundreds of volts of electricity went through him.

The man upstairs heard him hollering. He ran downstairs, grabbed a pole to ground and protect himself from that powerful voltage, and knocked my uncle loose. Then he called an ambulance. My uncle was still conscious at the time. They put him in the ambulance and headed toward the hospital. He realized he was dying, but, praise God, he went home singing because he was a Christian.

Well, I’m glad he went to Heaven, but you couldn’t say that God took him. He just went home early because he was careless. Various insurance companies and other organizations run safety programs at different workplaces, reminding them to be careful. Did you ever notice that when people abide by the safety rules, God doesn’t take so many of them home! I said that jokingly. The point is, if we’re not careful, we can put the blame in the wrong place.

Confession: I obey God’s laws set forth in His Word. And I also obey the natural laws of the land. As a result, I enjoy a long life on this earth.