Transporting a busload of preschoolers to a pumpkin farm, with animals and all, was a trip on top of a trip! Thank You, Father, for safety and the blessings on new hearts and minds experiencing Your creation!
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One thing about driving my bus in the pre-dawn hours is the fact that I am by no means alone on the roads I travel. In the olden days of my youth, we had high beams, but in that era, you’d push a button on the floorboard with your left foot to activate and deactivate them. They were just halogen low-beam and high-beam bulbs. Most new vehicles have LED lights, some have HID, and some now have laser lights. Regardless, overall, most are very bright.
I am guilty on occasion as well, but people regularly forget they have their high beams on, and it’s tough seeing where you’re going while being blinded.
Another thing I’ve noticed is that often, it’s not so much a high beam problem, but it is a matter of where the vehicle is on the road. If a pickup truck is towing a heavy trailer, the back of the truck is lower, which angles the front end up, making low beams shine right in your face. Vehicles sitting at intersections across from you often sit in an incline, causing the same effect.
All of these situations just happen. There may be people who intentionally blind other drivers, but I think those would be far and few between.
How often are we just rolling along in our daily routine when we are caught unawares by someone’s anger or frustration out of nowhere? We are not necessarily picked out of the crowd to take aim at, but often, we are just in the wrong place at the wrong time. It’s not intentional; it just happens.
It can be challenging to respond this way, but we need to train ourselves, with the Holy Spirit’s patience and resolve, to respond in love instead of firing back in anger. Our response, too, might be not to react outwardly but to inwardly boil and fume about the unfairness of it all. It’s easy to let those kinds of things ruin our day, which often spills onto those around us.
Here’s a more pointed example. Let’s compare the truck hauling a heavy trailer to someone overwhelmed with life. Many people are carrying the weight of the world on their shoulders…and they often feel that they are alone. Everything is against them, and they can’t seem to catch a break. It’s probably not their intention, but those excess burdens can cause them to rear up, and because you happen to be in front of them, you take the brunt of their frustrations, fear, and loneliness.
When we drive, there’s not a lot you can do sometimes except to lash back, but if the opportunity arises, pray that the Lord will give you words of love and understanding to ease whatever you can of their load. The greatest thing you can do for them is to pray for them. If possible, it would be great to pray for them personally right there and then if they are receptive to that.
Jesus tells us in Matthew 5 that we are to be salt and light in this world. It doesn’t just happen; they are deliberate acts on our part. We must pray for ourselves, as well. We can make a difference!
…let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven. Matthew 5:16b NIV
Oct 19th, 2023, Thurs, 5:20 pm
