God's Traffic Laws
Published Friday, April 01, 2005 by the Stewart | E-mail this post
The problem with writing about religion is that you run the risk of offending sincerely religious people, and then they come after you with machetes.
(Dave Barry)
I've been thinking alot about traffic lights. A strange subject, no doubt. Perhaps it's because I like to go for walks, and there is a set of lights just by my house, and I always pay attention to the amount of traffic around here. But for whatever reason, I think they are quite a genius idea. While it is always a pain getting a red light and having to stop and wait and try not to look at the car stopped beside you (although, as a side note, it can be quite fun to stare intently at the driver until they look in your direction, and then raise your eyebrows real high and smile big -- just make sure it isn't a police officer), you have to consider what chaos traffic would be if it weren't for them. Here in Abbotsford there is an intersection affectionatly known as "Five Corners", because, obviously, it has five different roads meeting up, so the light system is quite the art exhibit. I was thinking today how it already feels like madness, but how ridiculous it would be without those lights there, or even working together.And then I started to think about how God puts 'traffic lights' of sorts in our life. I think it's His way of helping us learn. Everyone is at a different point on a different road -- their own personal highway. As we move along, God will choose to stop us when He feels we need to be stopped, and will let us go when He deems it appropriate. Sometimes life feels like it's going nowhere, like we're parked, when really, we're just at a red light. It won't stay red forever, but there is a reason we're there. If we're grumpy about being inconvenienced, I think we miss the point that God is trying to get accross. There is no "normal" life, no "normal" order of events. God has different purposes for all of us, and when He chooses to keep us in one place for a period of time that He considers necessary, while letting others go on their way, I think we need to embrace it. Without those checks, those moments of going and stopping, without God's traffic lights, I think we end up forfeiting a great deal of what God would have for us. I know from personal experience that disregarding traffic laws can be not only embarassing, but expensive. I'd be $160 richer today had I not blown that stop sign. I wonder how many of God's red lights I've blown?Ok, it was a strange analogy, I know. The things that go through my head, I tell ya...
the reading rainbow
- A Generous Orthodoxy
Brian McLaren
- Brave New World
Aldous Huxley
- Catcher In the Rye
J.D. Salinger
- Smoke & Mirrors
Neil Gaiman
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