There’s a widely held belief that our island is a car-free place, where everyone gets around on golf carts. I cannot tell you how many articles have been written about Daufuskie that say precisely that, presenting the image that this is a place where life is experienced at a leisurely pace. It is an appealing and romantic notion, and indeed there are sections of our island where residents and visitors are limited to low-speed electric vehicles for their own personal transportation. However, there are no roads on this island where it is true that cars and trucks are prohibited, and there are many roads where you are just as likely to encounter a truck as you are a golf cart.
Those of us who live here understand this reality. We know that we might encounter a dump truck or a large commercial vehicle going 35 miles an hour, since that is the speed limit on some of the roads out here. For that reason, we appreciate the need to operate our vehicles in the same manner that we would on the mainland. Unfortunately, visitors to our island believe what they have read, and they come here with a very different assumption about the rules of the road. Further, many of the rental golf carts are slower than the vehicles that we typically use – but they have no way of knowing that until they see us passing them. Because they think that slow golf carts are the only vehicles on the road, these visitors behave differently than they would on the mainland. They don’t see our roads as potentially hazardous, so they are more likely to drive while under the influence, or to allow their young children to drive. Their decisions seem reasonable to them because of the information that they have received and the assumptions that they have made, so they can sometimes be quite defiant when you try to tell them the truth, but even when confronted with the obvious, they hold on to the false picture that they came with. The presence of trucks, the stories of golf cart deaths, near-misses, DUI arrests, and extremely large fines from the Sheriff’s Office go unheeded.
To some extent, we create an image of reality in our minds that may not quite reflect what really is. Some of the information that shapes our understanding may not be accurate or, at the very least, is incomplete. Our own biases color how we see things, blinding us to certain things that should be obvious. One perspective is more pleasing than another, so we reject other points of view. In the process, reality itself isn’t changed, and the potential consequences within that reality don’t magically disappear, but we risk being blissfully ignorant of the potential of crashing into a dump truck that is barreling down the road towards us.
Friends, God is real. The evidence of his existence and power is all around us. Unfortunately, so many have been taught all their lives that there is no God, that we are the result of purely natural processes, and therefore there’s nothing beyond this physical world. And unfortunately, there are serious consequences awaiting those who will not allow what really is to change their understanding of how they should live.
Come and join us on Sunday at 10:00 am at the church. Perhaps you will leave with a clearer picture of the reality of this place we call home.
Peace and blessings – Pastor Aaron