曾經聽過的一個故事：一個男孩要高中畢業了，他想要一輛新車作為畢業禮物，而他的父親也不厭其煩地帶他跑了很多家車行。畢業典禮完了，一家人回到家中，他心中期望著他家門囗會停著那輛他最喜歡的新車，沒想到，一回到傢什麼徵象也沒有，只見他爸爸笑咪咪地從書房裡捧出一本燙金的聖經來，對他說：「兒子啊，老爸真高興你畢業了!」當時，一股幾乎是來自地獄裡的怒氣充塞了這個兒子．他沒想到，自己所敬愛的父親會是如此無聊又無恥的混帳東西。他二話不說，掉轉了頭就往外走，一走，就走了三十幾年。
I once heard a story.
There was a boy who was about to graduate from high school. He wanted to have a new car for his graduation gift. His father patiently took him to many car dealers to look over the choices. After the commencement ceremony, the family went home. The son had anticipated to see his chosen car parked right there in the drive way, yet unexpectedly, there was no sign of any new car. There was only his father coming out of the study with a sweet grin on his face and a gilded Bible in his hands. 
「Son, I』m so happy that you graduated,」 said his father.
The son was filled with rage directly from hell. He had never thought that his beloved father would turn out to be such a deceitful and shameless bastard. 
Without saying a word, the son left home and never came back. He was gone for thirty years.

在父親的喪禮上，這個兒子終於回來了，他看著那個「混帳老頭」下了葬，扶著也傷心的母親回到了家中，當他走進他昔日的房間裡，也看他兒時所有的一切都沒有變，只是，在他的書桌上，躺著一本聖經,那本令他徹底失望的「畢業禮物」這時，他對「爸爸」的情緒是複雜的，但往日的怒火，畢竟已消殆了許多。他坐下來．開始翻著他三十多年前拒絕的「禮物」，也看到聖經的內頁有著父親的筆跡；「給我心愛的兒子．湯米，願你如鷹展翅上騰．奔跑卻不睏倦，行走卻不疲乏。」
The son eventually came home for his father』s funeral. He watched the burial of the 「bastard」 and brought his broken-hearted mother home. When he once again entered his old bedroom, he found everything had been left the same as the day he left, except the Bible, that totally disappointing gift, lying quietly on his desk. At this moment, his feelings towards his father were mixed; after all, the anger he once felt had died down. He sat down and began turning the pages of his graduation gift. Inside the Bible was his father』s handwriting:
「To my dear son, Tommy, may you fly high on wings like eagles, run and not grow weary, walk and not faint.」 (From the Bible: 「But those who wait on the Lord will find new strength. They will fly high on wings like eagles. They will run and not grow weary. They will walk and not faint. - Isaiah 40: 31)

他又翻過一頁，展現在他面前的，是一張發黃了的支票，那票額，正是當初他看中的一部車子的價錢，而那日期，正是他高中畢業的日期。湯米的驚訝，是難以用文字形容的，他的悔意，也是無法用任何行為來減輕。只是當時那份年輕的愚思，使他失去了那一生最寶貴的父子親情，而最奇怪的是，漫長的三十年中，他從來沒有想過：自己的判斷可能是錯誤的，失望的憤怒使他相信了一個致命的謊言：那個愛他十八年的父親，會在一夜之間變成一個可怕的惡魔們!
Tommy turned another page. There lay a yellowed check. The sum on the check was the exact cost of the car he had chosen 30 years ago; and the date was his high school commencement day. Tommy was shocked beyond description; his regret was also beyond redemption. He had lost the most precious thing—a life-long relationship with his father—just because of the foolishness in his youth. The most bizarre thing was, it never occurred to him during these thirty long years that 「he may have made a wrong judgment about his father.」 The rage from disappointment blinded him to a deadly lie: that his loving father for 18 years could turn into a horrible demon over night.

湯米不是唯一陷在這種陷阱中的人，我們每一個人的一生，有多少次，是用了一個小小的「失誤」，而鑄成了一生無法彌補的大錯呢，聖經中的「罪」這個字，原意即是「未中標的」的意思，殺人搶劫固然是罪，但那畢竟是少數人犯的錯誤。然而，我們這些「正常人」、「模範公民」並非就是與「罪」無關了，因為，我們太容易犯下各種「小小」的「失誤」，但是，每一個失誤所能造成的後果，卻是難以追回的，因為，「失誤」的「行程」，走得比光速還要快。
Tommy is not alone in being trapped in this kind of pitfall. How many times in our lives have we made huge and unforgivable mistakes just out of an inadvertent error? The word 「sin」 as it is used in the Bible carries the original meaning of 「missing the target.」 Murder and stealing are sins, but they are perpetrated by only a few people, while most of us who are considered 「normal people」 and 「model citizens」 are all too easy to make all kinds of 「small」 「mistakes,」 mistakes that miss the target. Unfortunately, some of these mistakes could bring regrettable consequences that develop so fast that nothing can be done to make up for them.