Friday, June 19, 2009

Spiritual Lessons from the Road ~ Part 1

Take away the television, cell phones, computers, people, civilization and pretty much any other distraction you can think of, except for driving through some pretty nice country, and you have our move down to Washington from Alaska. During this trip I learned some of what I feel to be some pretty important spiritual life lessons as I sat behind the wheel of my car.

Looking Ahead & Keeping Your Eyes on the Lead Car
My husband has been a lover of motorcycles, especially riding them, for many years. I remember when we lived in Reno we were talking about a motorcycle/rider in front of us on the road and he explained a very important thing to know when riding. He said that it is very important that you look ahead to where you are going rather than where you are right at that second especially when you are in a curve or something not so easy to navigate.

This became especially true for me as I was driving our Jeep, pulling a trailer for the first time, and navigating around mountains and narrow passage ways around them. I learned that it became much easier to navigate those hairy parts of the road if I looked ahead to my husband's truck/trailer in front of me. In those times when I couldn't see him in front of me I picked a spot further down. I was shocked. It worked! I got to thinking about how that was an easy reminder of how we need to focus on Jesus who stands in front of us like he did in front of Peter that day on the water. If we try to look too far ahead or at our feet (or in this case the road) too much it is easy to get swept away by the waves. I learned that quickly on this drive. There were times that if I looked at the scary curve or to the long drop next to me or even the Mack truck bearing down behind me that it was easy to get panicky but when I remembered to, I looked ahead to the back of our trailer and ignored those other distractions and aimed in the same direction. There were some times during our drive where we were navigating through rain and the dark and I was scared that I would hit a moose or just lose sight of the road but I just kept following the tail lights in front of me. There were other times where I thought I would lose control around a curve and roll the Jeep but I just kept my eyes on the tail lights in front of me. What's funny is that I could probably tell you in more and greater detail about the back of our trailer than I could most of the drive!

All I know is that I learned that if I keep my eyes on the "Lead Car" and focus just in front of where I am headed then it is a much more enjoyable ride.

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