He Got the Job

 •  1 min. read  •  grade level: 6
A young man walked from the pier on the Mississippi River direct to the captain's cabin of a riverboat plying between New Orleans and St. Louis. He was young and filled with confidence. The captain asked him what he wanted and the young man replied that he was looking for a job as a wheelman. "What experience have you had on the river?" asked the captain. "Five years, sir." "Do you know the location of all the shoals and snags?" "No, sir, but I know where there aren't any, and that's where I will steer." He got the job. In the Christian life, the path of safety in Christian living is not in knowing all the nature of sin or the path of wickedness, but in knowing the will of the Lord and in being willing to stay in it. The obedience of the saints in Rome at the time Paul wrote to them had become known throughout the Christian world. Paul wrote to them, complimenting them on this obedience, and said, "I am glad therefore on your behalf: but yet I would have you wise unto that which is goad, and simple concerning evil" (Rom. 16:19). We must steer where sin is not.