This love for driving didn't always exist. I was absolutely terrified of getting onto the road after being traumatized by my driving instructor! But with practice, I grew to love it, especially because of how cathartic it can be. Get into the car and go. Everything becomes routine. When you're not feeling so great, it's nice to just drive and drive. You get time to think; you sing along to the radio. It's all good. Well, most of the time.
Late one night in January, my dad and I were driving back from Boston through a pretty bad storm. His bulky minivan isn't my vehicle of choice; the wheel is particularly sensitive, so I was gripping it with T-Rex arms at the 11-and-1 positions. The downpour was intense, and the highways were flooding. To top it all off, people were still flying past me at 90 miles per hour. Commence hyperventilation.
I could barely see the road in front of me, so fortunately, the GPS instructed, "Continue for 80 miles." I thought I could do that, but the white and yellow lines began to blur in the drops. The windshield wipers couldn't move fast enough. The only thing that was guiding me were the bright red lights of the car immediately in front of me.
As I was driving, I got thinking. (Some people get their ideas in the shower, but me? Sitting in the driver's seat.) One of the speakers during my high school graduation likened the twists and unexpected changes in life to a GPS "recalculating." Since then, I've noticed that people tend to draw comparisons between life and driving, so I'm going to make one of my own: following the car(s) in front of me that night made me wonder about who we decide to follow in life.
You're laughing now, and so am I, but I think there's some truth to it all. One of the first things I was taught by my driver's ed teacher was to always look ahead at the car in front of me, not directly at the ground in front of me. We look at things slightly ahead so that we're better prepared. When I was sight-reading for piano tests, my teacher always told me to look at least one measure ahead. "You need to know what's coming before it comes."
There's a little bit of court vision, but you're not looking so far out that you miss the squirrel darting in front of your car. Nor do you want your eyes to wander too far. Where your eyes go, your hands will inevitably gravitate towards as well, leading the entire car in that direction. Life's pretty similar. Events develop gradually and subtly, but they'll accumulate into bigger changes. By the time you look up and realize where you're heading, it's too late.
The car we choose to follow is important, and I realized it's especially important during a bad storm. If I chose to follow a car that was accelerating full speed ahead, I'd have to do the same because the cars behind me would edge too close for comfort. Like in a marathon (not that I would know), the person driving in front of me sets the pace to follow. That night, it was in my best interest to follow someone a little bit more cautious.
"...By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit." -Romans 8:3-5
"...Let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God." -Hebrews 12:1-2
When the world's telling you to value so many other things - productivity, money, selfish individuality - it's hard to live according to God's calling. Jesus is our perfect example, but we also need to find other role models to make Jesus' godly way of life seem more tangible. Where do we find these people? That's where the importance of pursuing Christ-centered community comes in.
I'm too guilty of forgoing community because it can be inconvenient, drama-filled, sacrificial. Yet how else am I going to find accountability? How else am I going to grow and mature without fellowship? Christ-centered community is like the person sitting next to you during a long road trip. A travel buddy. They keep you awake. They help you be conscious of what's infiltrating your mind.
There's too many pressures, with cars behind us egging us on. Distractions, from the birds in the air to the billboards with ridiculous messages, are everywhere. What we give attention to has power over us, and I don't think our individual will-power is enough to keep us from straying away. Like learning a language, you can't live a godly life by simply reading the Word. Theory can get you only so far. You have to live it out, with other people, learning from other people.
"Remember your leaders, those who spoke to you the word of God. Consider the outcome of their way of life, and imitate their faith." - Hebrews 13:7
"Brothers, join in imitating me, and keep your eyes on those who walk according to the example you have in us." -Philippians 3:17
Bottom line? Choose wisely who and what you allow to influence you.
No comments:
Post a Comment