The coffee crash, the breakfast dash. The school morning jig, the sleepy daughter zig. The packing lunch rush, the highway traffic crush. The race, then wait, as cars creep along the school drop-off line. It works, it rolls, until there’s a no-left-turn troll.
If you drive the morning or afternoon school car line, you know the logistics precariously balance traffic safety and school access. This is particularly challenging for a school like ours whose car line dumps right out onto a two way road where cars are merging in from both directions. When a driver wants to turn left out of the car line, waiting for a clear opportunity, it backs up the line behind them, complicates matters for the cars wanting to turn turn left off the main road, and creates good odds there will be a collision with the oncoming traffic. In an attempt to move traffic more safely, the school instituted a no left turn policy during the peak drop off times, and placed a “No Left Turn” signboard in the left turn lane. Drivers can swiftly turn right and take another route, or make a u-turn at a turn out spot. As you can guess, there are drivers who refuse to follow the policy and insist on turning left. Worse, with the sign sitting in the left turn lane, the back-up behind them is even worse since those wanting to turn right can’t do so until the car at the front makes their left turn.
Now that I’ve hopefully painted in your mind this scene and possibly stirred up feelings of impatience and frustration, let’s talk about summoning up patience and consideration of others when it seems impossible. First, let me just say there is no law against this particular left turn, and that when there is light traffic, and no one is inconvenienced, I have taken that left turn. I am amazed, however, by the number of people who stubbornly sit there waiting to lumber left while cars stack up behind them. Viewed through the most basic lens of our shared human morality, this act is unkind and inconsiderate of others. Viewed through the lens of Christian obligation, it is a refusal to love others as self (commanded by Christ Matthew 22:39-40) and a rejection of sacrificing benefits to self in order to elevate the needs of others. That is, putting others first (Philippians 2:3-4). I have heard people label themselves as “impatient” and “busy,” life-limiting and self-proclaimed labels. The truth is, there is no such thing as a statically impatient, superior, or stubborn person. There are only those who refuse God’s offer of Holy Spirit superpowers of love, joy, peace, patience, goodness, kindness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control (Galations 5:22-23). The good news here is that when these things aren’t naturally part of our DNA and our personality rebels against them, we don’t have to conjure them up out of non existent wells and dry reservoirs, but merely access them by prayer. I’m easily frustrated and impatient, because my time is stretched to the max, but when I take a few seconds to breathe and pray for the Fruit of the Holy Spirit, I not only make someone else’s day better, I create an access point for them to experience God’s goodness by removing obstacles to grace, and I, myself, am blessed by this self-sacrifice.
Can a person change the way they are? Can they switch gears in the middle of a regrettable act of selfishness? Can a rude person become kind? I believe, with God’s help, they can.
The Runnin' Rev 