A month or so ago, I accidentally ran the stop sign at a ROUND ABOUT two seconds away from my house. A cop was, of course, sitting in the club house parking lot of Mansker Farms just WAITING for someone to do so. Unfortunately, I was the lucky person who got caught. I did run it. I did deserve a ticket. The thing that bothers me the most is that I didn't intentionally run it. Some people blatantly don't care about stop signs or yellow lights. As long as they get to where they are going. That's not me. I care. It was an accident. After a long day, I didn't stop. P.S. There are NOT supposed to be stop signs at a round about. The whole purpose of a round about is to yield into oncoming traffic. The injustice of the situation is that less than a month after my ticket they replaced the stop signs to yield signs! Can I say, "UGHHH!" Oh well. It's over, done with, in the past. Last night I went to safety school. Traffic school. Whatever you want to call it. And just like everyone else, I felt like I did not deserve to be there. I felt I was a good - even a GREAT - driver. I am always extra careful with my baby in the car. I never go more the 5 mph over. I never speed in areas that I know police frequent. I never try to cross traffic, I always turn right or try to find a light. I hate cutting across parking lots. I consider myself to be careful. I always assume there will be traffic or an accident.
Well, I guess I was wrong. I have to say that I was "convicted" at traffic school. It turns out I have "passive aggressive" road rage. Me? Isn't that funny? Here are some examples of passive aggressive road rage:
1. Do you ever drive in the left lane on the interstate and go the speed limit and just expect everyone else to deal with you? That is aggressive behavior. You are acting like YOU have the right to determine who gets to pass you or not. I have done that. We justify it because we're going the "speed limit".
2. When merging from one lane to two to get ON the interstate do you ever scoot up to the car in front of you so as not to let oncoming traffic through? :) They haven't been waiting as long as you, but still, passive aggressive!
There are several other examples of this, but the main lesson was that road rage is responsible for 1/4 of the accidents!! 25%! That's a huge number. One out of every 4 accidents is caused by anger! I kept thinking about how all of this related to my walk with Christ! Yes, I have a point. Do I treat others like I am better than them? Do I have a "right" more so than anyone else? Am I more worthy of the road or anything else for that matter than another human? Do I expect people to do things my way? Anger is our way of saying that we have a RIGHT to do things my our and others just have to deal with it. The root of anger is that it didn't go "my way." I can give you so many scriptures where God tells us that anger is the way of a fool. Yes, people are going to make you angry. Yes, people can act very hurtful and some people are just plain idiotic. Yes, there IS such thing as a righteous anger. But ultimately, Jesus gave us this command: In your anger, do not sin!
Here's what I thought was funny. The video we watched in the class talked about how to counteract road rage by becoming a road WARRIOR! haha! An exercise you can try is this: Once a week when you are leaving for work or wherever, make a commitment to yourself that NOTHING IS GOING TO BOTHER YOU. NOTHING can make you mad. If someone cuts you off, tailgates you, etc...determine not to react.
I thought this was funny because it's an exercise that practices great self-control. Being a Christian, I understand that I have no self-control other than what is a fruit of Christ's Spirit dwelling with me (Gal. 5:22-23). So for this secular video to tell you to practice such self-control, it kind of made me laugh. If the world expects that of us, how much more will Christ who gives us the POWER of self-control by living in us?
Hear me out, I'm NOT talking about driving anymore. I'm talking going about our daily lives with the attitude that NOTHING can bother me. I am a new creation in Christ, more than conqueror through Him, a daughter of the King. I've been made for Him, by Him, and in Him I live, move, and have my being! Yes, people are going to make me angry or hurt me or cause me to stumble. But I am the righteousness of Christ! I have the same power that rose Jesus Christ from the dead living inside of me (Rom 8:11). I'm also talking about making sure that our anger doesn't cause us to think more of ourselves than others. We are to love our neighbors as ourselves. Thinking of others as better than us, and serving others rather than our needs and wants.
I just love how God uses practical stuff to show me spiritual truth! :)
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