Little Red Riding Hood

Road Trip ~ Atlanta continued

My three travel companions took one airline to Atlanta while I took another.  No biggie.  At the airport, I discovered that Atlanta has a rail system similar to ours.  So instead of catching a $16 taxi, I took the train to my hotel for a whopping fare of $2.50.  Good deal! So off I went, suitcase in tow, down into the underground of Atlanta.

Having arrived in the daytime, two hours ahead of my travel companions, I eagerly advised them to, " take the train.  It's fast, easy and inexpensive!"  Then came the reprimands from the hotel staff.  "Really?  You didn't!  Don't you know how unsafe it is to travel on the train, especially at night?  Your friends should not take the train."  Needless to say, I was a bit startled by their comments but my experience was so pleasurable and uneventful that I kind of shrugged them off.  Fortunately, my friends ignored my advice and took a limo (which is another story in itself).

We did end up taking the train a couple of days later to an upscale mall after our waiter advised us to be aware of our surroundings and "don't flaunt any Apple bags."  Apple is either very, very popular with thieves in Atlanta or it's code word for don't-carry-any-logo-imprinted-shopping-bags.

I was sort of nonplussed about it all and then on our last day, USA Today newspaper ran a front page article on the dangers ~ both bodily harm and theft ~ of areas in and around airports and train stations.  Atlanta was number 8 out of 29 cities for airport-related crimes and number 15 out of 26 cities for train-related crimes.  So while Atlanta wasn't on the top of the list, it was on the list.


That's how it is sometimes in life.  We go blundering blithely along, ignoring or ignorant of  circumstances that smell of danger.  I can think of other times that I have done this ~ but really how unaware was I, or did I just choose to ignore the signs?  I call it the Little Red Riding Hood syndrome.  We know something isn't quite right, "My what big teeth you have," but we keep going down the path.


Satan is a wily dude.  He knows how to dupe us.  Sometimes we go willingly along.  Sometimes hesitantly.  Sometimes even ignorantly or innocently.  He doesn't care.  He just wants us to go along.


Our God is faithful in His protection even when we're not aware of His presence or choose to turn our back a bit sideways on Him.  I just wished I remembered to proactively put on the armor of God every morning and not wait until the enemy is ready to attack.