Edward Gibbon, the English historian, defined history as “the register of the crimes, follies, and misfortunes of mankind.” You need not read very far in history to see that there is much truth in this analysis. While in sports, technology, and a few other areas man has made magnificent advances, in personal and international relations his record is one of blunders.
The greatest of all blunders, however, are in the spiritual realm. There are times when the voice of God comes to a man and smites his conscience with guilt. Thank God for conscience and guilt for they, like pain, are intended as a warning to save us. Yet quite often people ignore God's voice and thus commit life’s greatest blunder.
Rev. James Redding devoted his life to helping rehabilitate ex-convicts. He became convinced that, except for a small core of chronic incorrigibles, every lawbreaker has his “redemption point, a time when he recognizes the futility of crime and hungers for escape. If you don’t throw him a life preserver when he is reaching out for it,” Redding said, “he will fall back into a sea of sin that will surely drown him.”
There is also a “redemption point” in our relationship with God. There is a time when God speaks to us in unmistakable clarity. If we do not respond, the voice may never come again. The Bible warns that “He, that being often reproved hardeneth his neck, shall suddenly be destroyed, and that without remedy” (Proverbs 29:1). This is life’s greatest tragedy brought on by life’s greatest blunder.