No, don't be fooled by the title, I am neither taking or giving driving lessons, I am learning from driving some life lessons, I thought I would share.
Yesterday I was driving home from a less than pleasant appointment with my therapist-there, I said it, I am seeing someone. I really need to, it has help immensely to get me through the tough times of my life without a partner. So, I am driving along in my new car-there, I said it, I have a new car (I haven't told a lot of people that because frankly, I didn't need a new car and feel stupid to have gone out and justified getting one.) The car has some new features that I am still getting used to. Jim had wanted me to have a car that had every imaginable safety feature on it-one of my justification points. This car has adaptive cruise control. If you don't know what that is, let me explain. It is optional when you use your cruise control to set it to slow down if you are approaching a vehicle that is moving slower than you. It takes the common sense approach to driving in that it keeps you from getting into someone's trunk unintentionally. The drawback is, the driver either pays attention and makes adjustments, or the car does it for you by slowing you down whether you want it to or not. There are other features in this car that make it so safe, I will not expound.
Yesterday as I was driving home on the interstate, I had the adaptive cruise control on. I noticed there were several cars in the lane in front of me that had slowed down. I decided that the speed of the cars in front of me were reacting to heavier traffic, construction, trucks, or some other good reason to be slowing. I let the car do its thing. Granted, let me assure you, this whole event took maybe 20 seconds tops, I didn't just sit there and let my car decide everything for me. As I drove, I realized the left lane was moving right along, no slowing, no traffic, nothing. So, I changed lanes. The car adjusted to the set speed and I was on my way. I looked over in the right lane as I passed two cars driving slower than the posted speed. No reason that I could see. I drove a little further and then the message hit me.
We tend to do this in life. We sit in the comfort of the right lane, we allow someone else to decide for us what speed we move at. We don't assess the situation and adjust ourselves, we just keep going along-or, we change lanes. I realized how too many times I am that person in the car in the right lane, letting the car decide for me what is best. I am trying very hard to change the lane I am in. I must admit, this is hard. It is easier to just keep riding along, going with the flow, accepting what is handed to me. However, is that getting me to where I really need to be? It may lead there, but it might not be the best way to get there.
I think God gave me that word picture so that I would start to look at what He wants for me that is not the same old thing, not the slowing down because there is an obstacle in front of me. Do I need to change lanes? Do you need to change lanes? It isn't easy, it may lead to something we don't expect, but it also may get us to where we need to be with less time and energy expended.
I am going to start praying that God shows me the lane I am to be in and gives me the strength to get there and stay there.
