Deadlier Than a Falling Penny

Danger lurks all around us, right?

Imagine standing on the street looking straight up at the Empire State Building. It’s not the tallest building in the world, but it’s still impressive. King Kong thought so. So while you’re standing there, some moron on the 86th floor observation deck is fishing for coins so he could use the high-powered binoculars to look for his cousin Murray in Queens. In the process of pulling out quarters, he pulls out a melted Snickers and a penny … which inadvertently flies from his hand and over the side of the building.

So there you stand, 1,050 feet below while a penny gains speed and comes hurdling toward your tender unprotected noggin. What do you do?

Most people would run for cover. And why not? Whether it’s your head or the concrete, something’s going to have a major hole in it.

Run for one of the famous sidewalk hot dogs, but don’t run for cover. If the speeding penny happened to hit you in the head, you’d feel it … but that’s about it. Not even a headache.

Even the myth busters agree.

This myth about the death-inducing penny falling from the Empire State Building has probably been around since the first time King Kong took a dive from the building. (And for the record, if an eight-ton ape fell on you, it would hurt more than a penny). It’s a myth, but people still believe it.

By contrast, we treat other things that are deadly as no big deal. I’m not talking about Spam or deep fried pork rinds. I’m referring to subtle things like envy. Lust. Impatience. Pride.

Sin. Big or little—however you chose to define it—it is still sin … and it is still deadly. A penny won’t put a hole in your head, but sin will put a hole in your life.

“Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us” (Heb. 12:1).