Welcome to another week of our Everyday Jesus link-up. Be sure to link-up below this post, comment on your neighbor’s blog and share with your friends… Because Jesus is everywhere, every day!
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I love almost everything about the Pacific Northwest.
I love the food. The culture. The diversity. The people. The massive amounts of things to do, both indoors and out. And yes, I even love tolerate the rain.
The absolute only downfall of living in a suburb of a suburb of a suburb of Seattle is the traffic.
Seriously. I nearly schedule my life around it. You won’t find me going off post anytime between 3:30-6pm on a weekday (especially Fridays) unless something is on fire. I plan my tour-guide tendencies for out-of-town guests around traffic.
Driving on Interstate 5 during rush hour illuminates how solid of a Christian I am. Slow to anger? Kind? Patient?
Yeah. About that.
Even on non-rush hour travel moments, I have to get in my kind-yet-agressive-attentive driving box. Fortunately, I have come a long way since my first experiences of driving in traffic when I was a 16-year-old traversing through cities like Kansas City, Omaha, Sioux City and Minneapolis.
Now there is less white-knuckle driving and more deep-breathing and muttering “Christianese” words under my breath.
The other day proved no different.
It was mid-morning and Charis were headed out for a day of errands. And by errands, I mean I was dropping her off at daycare and I was going to be uber productive. (Hey, she’s two… I am not glutton for punishment to shop with a toddler for more than 3 minutes.)
We pull onto the interstate and traffic is roaring. Boogity, boogity, boogity, boys… Let’s go racing.
I merge into traffic and a semi-truck pulls over in front of me. He goes a little too far to the right and nudges the shoulder with his trailer. One of his tires hits the “wake-up” strip. I mutter and hit the brakes a bit to give him room.
A second later, I smell burning rubber. I check my gauges, but no tire issues on my end. His trailer is swerving more than what I deem safe and I notice that the rubbery-smell is coming from him.
His double-decker trailer, loaded with 6 huge cars, has blown a single tire. It is bouncing more and more with each moment.
And he has no idea.
I say a quick prayer. Uh, Lord… A little help here? This is going to get ugly in a hurry.
I check my blind-spot, hit my blinker and jump left. I (temporarily) romp on the gas to catch up with the cab. I am finally in position. I roll down my window and tab my horn. Not sure how he figured out what my flailing arms meant, but he checked his mirror, nodded acknowledgment and pulled off the interstate at the upcoming exit.
Whew. Crisis averted. Thanks, Jesus.
As I drove to my destination, I reflected on the previous events. And as usual, God showed me how this relates to our everyday walk of faith.
It is all about the importance of community. Sometimes, we are speeding down the interstate, carrying our load and rushing to our next destination. But then our big rig blows a tire– and we don’t even know it.
That is when we have good friends and faithful folks who come alongside us and tell us to slow down and fix it before we crash.
Community is another reason I love our current locale in the PNW. We have such rich community here. People who give direction, tell us when it is safe to merge and let us know when we are about to crash.
Take a moment and think about the people who come alongside you when your metaphorical big rig has a blow how. Who are they? How do they enrich your walk with Christ? Brag on them a bit in the comments below.
Today let’s rejoice for our friends who call us out and signal us to pull over when our big rig has a blow out. Because then, and only then, can we change our tire and get back on the road of following Christ.
Trucking on,
“Now I’m turning you over to God, our marvelous God whose gracious Word can make you into what he wants you to be and give you everything you could possibly need in this community of holy friends.” ~Acts 20:32 MSG
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