We had a truly frightening experience this past Saturday night. We attended a New York Rangers Hockey game in Madison Square Garden. We were so far up in the nosebleed section I needed binoculars to read the numbers on the backs of the players. The frightening thing happened afterward. We got onto an escalator going down that led to another escalator going down and so on. Midway down for some unknown reason an official blocked the entrance of an escalator. He apparently had not thought of what was going to occur because the escalator arriving at his position continued to disgorge people into a very small area. People were piling up with no place to go. People at the top of the still moving escalator did not know what was happened at the bottom and continued to get on for the ride down. We had small children with us and immediately grabbed them to hold above our heads. Obviously the situation was rectified or I would not be writing to you. But it was frightening as dozens more people continued to be delivered onto the pile.
I thought of those mounting the escalator not knowing what awaited them at the bottom. So often we embark on a course of action not knowing where it will take us. Proverbs 14:12, “There is a way that seems right to a man, but in the end it leads to death.” When wiser people tell us not to do something we really ought to take heed. The reason why the sign says, “Don’t drink the water” could be because the water is poisoned.
Written by Roger Bothwell on October 21, 2003.
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