During our five week stay on Oahu, there is one incident that will never be forgotten in the minds of my wife and I: The day we mowed down a bike!

The description of the room we rented in Waikiki sounded so perfect. It was a great price, for one thing, and the ad suggested lots of free parking available just “across the road”. It was right along the Ala Wai canal, where there was purported to be a beautiful foot path along the waterway, and the location was said to be just minutes from the beach.

We will say that most of these things carried an element of truth; but it didn’t paint the whole picture by far. For example, there was a walking path along the canal across the road from our apartment; But the ad never mentioned how dirty the canal was or how many people used the path, and especially not how many homeless people made this their hotel. As another example, we were only about two minutes from the beach by car, but the ad never mentioned that there wasn’t any beach parking. Fortunately, it was only about 10 minutes by foot; however 10 minutes seems like an eternity when you are lugging heavy beach gear. And as for the room itself, we’ll just say that the pictures made it seem a lot nicer than it actually was. The fridge leaked, the place was filthy, and the worst problem was the street noise and the sirens roaring down the street multiple times every night.

Probably the most deceiving description, however, involved the parking. There was free street parking across the road; however it was a very busy road, and it was very rare that a spot was available. In addition, there was a well-used bike path that ran between the parking spots and the busy road. On the odd days we were actually able to find a spot, my wife, who was the designated driver, always tried to look down the bike path regularly before opening her door.

It had been a particularly stressful afternoon overall. Couple with this the fact that our regular car, a Tesla, is fully automatic; whereas the car we rented was not, and my wife was struggling to program her brain to manually take the car out of gear, put on the parking brake, turn off the engine, remove the keys, take her phone (which doubled as a GPS), etc. I could see her going through the mental check list before she began scrambling to gather up the lunch bag, back pack, water bottles, etc. To her credit, she did check the side mirror for bikes before gently pushing the door open. I had seen her do this day after day, but this day something different was on the horizon. As she eased the door open, there was a loud “bang” and the whole car shuddered and shook. Out of the corner of our eyes we could see a bike and its rider independently skidding sideways into the middle of the road.

In the end, praise be to God, the biker was shaken up but not seriously hurt, and the worst that happened to the bike was the chain came off, which my wife was able to put back on. I think my wife was almost as shaken up as the biker, and she still can’t understand how she didn’t see the biker. She finally determined that he must have been in her blind spot, and for the remainder of our time on Oahu, she was very careful to not only check the mirror but also her blind spot. She would then cautiously crack the door open and peer down the bike path before opening it completely!

Life isn’t always straight forward either. Things aren’t always what we expect them to be, and this can throw us off. We have new things to learn and remember just to survive; and we get so involved with the survival of life that we tend to forget that there’s someone who wants nothing more than to catch us in his traps: The devil! Just like that biker kind of “snuck up” on my wife despite her vigilance, the devil sneaks up on us, intent on catching us distracted so that he can easily ensnare us in his sin traps: “Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.” (1 Peter 5:8b NIV). Therefore, just like my wife had to pay special attention to avoid hitting any other bikers, our job is to, “Be alert and of sober mind.” (1 Peter 5:8a NIV).

We are very aware that we could have seriously hurt that biker, and we praise God that he was okay. By the same token, the devil’s traps seriously harm us as well. They may not land us in the hospital, but they have the potential to trap us in addictions, sinful lifestyles, etc., that will not only harm us but those around us as well.

My wife regrets that she didn’t start paying good attention to the bikers on that bike path before she hit the one. In the same way, once entrenched in sin, we also regret that we didn’t pay better attention to avoiding the devil’s traps!

Let’s be vigilant, especially in the midst of life’s busyness and trials! For when we do, we can avoid the devil’s traps!

Inspired by Rob Chaffart
Director, Answers2Prayer Ministries

(To access the entire “Hawaii, Here We Come!” devotional series, please click here!)