How's my driving?

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Have you ever come behind a car that had that sticker: "How's My Driving?" along with some kind of ID and  a phone number to call to actually report their driving? I have always wanted to call in whether they were good or bad, just to call for fun. Sometimes I think every car should have one of those stickers, especially when they do something stupid and drive you nuts, then maybe calling the number could give you some kind of venting and release for all those stupid drivers out there. Well this is how I usually think when I am on the road. Some of my absolute biggest pet peeves with people come when I am on the road, especially since we live in a college town, there are just some plain old STUPID drivers who think they own the road, same for pedestrians, sometimes they are just as bad as the drivers.

For this lovely Sun-Up Saturday I wanted to share a few little thoughts on this similar topic and a different perspective I got from a little experience the other day.

I was visiting this older lady from my church and she asked if I could come later that week to help her pull some weeds. She was having friends over for a little lunch picnic in her beautiful yard and she wanted it to look perfect. So the few days later came and I went to her house to help pick the weeds. As I was approaching her house I stopped before turning into her driveway because I needed to cross over the right hand side of the road and there was a car coming, so I stopped to wait for them to pass and then I would turn. Since it was a more residental street there was no middle turning lane.

Then to my great surprise I hear behind me a loud honking, over and over. "Rude!" I think. After the car from the opposite side passes, I quickly turn into the driveway to get out of "Jerk's" way. As I turned I looked to see the face of this impatient driver and he gave me the evil look like "Hello? What is your problem? Learn how to drive!" and even did the hand movements thrown up in the air in a "what the heck" sort of fashion. Rrrr! Have a mentioned that my biggest pet peeves come from driving?

As I was looking to see the drivers face, I also immediately recognized the mans face as one of the leaders from my church, and later on when I drove home I noticed his car was parked at the church, so as he honked at me, he was on his way to the church to do some meetings or the like. My immediate feelings of "jerk" and annoyance toward the driver that I always feel, turned to feelings of awkwardness and almost shame. Feeling almost like I disappointed this leader because I was in his way even though I didn't do anything wrong. And I hate the feeling like I am disappointing some one (I have a nasty case of being a people pleaser).

Even though this was only a few seconds of my life and wasn't really a big deal, and no one got hurt, I can't let this situation get off my mind. It has really got me thinking. In my thinkings of it to death, I have thought of myself in his shoes and the many times I give evil glares at other drivers or do the "what the heck" hands thrown in the air movements. Did this man know that I was on my way to helping another fellow church member? Did he know that I was also one of his fellow church members? Would he have made those same rude gestures and looks at me if he had known these things? He was also on his way to do some church related assignments at the church, did this little moment make him feel less spiritual, less in tune with the spirit to be doing God's work? There are so many countless times that I forget that there are individual people in those cars I am around. But if I don't personally know those other drivers it is so much easier for me to get angry at them for getting in my way and making stupid mistakes. If I were to personally know a driver in a car near me that did something I didn't like it wouldn't bother me, simply because I know that person, or I would think, "oh they are just so silly" and then put it aside. Do you ever get like that? That some how magically having a better connection with someone keeps you from totally blowing up at them.

I have been listening to the book "7 Habits of Highly Effective People" by Stephan R. Covey. In it he shares a story that really relates to this idea. I believe he was on a bus or train and it was all quiet, all the passengers were quietly and peacefully enjoying their ride. Then a man and 5 children came on and the children were going crazy making all sorts of havoc and noise while the man was very calm and down looking and didn't do or say anything to calm his children down. Covey started to get a little annoyed at these children and that they were disrupting the peace they once felt on the bus. So he spoke up to the man and said, "Um, it was nice and quiet in here, and now your children are all crazy, is there something you can do to calm them down?" The man breaks out of a stare he had in zoning out and looks up and says "Oh, I am sorry, I didn't mean to bring all this chaos, we just got back from the hospital and their mother passed away, and I still don't know how to take it all in, I guess they don't know how to handle it either. So sorry sir to bring some disturbance." Covey's imediate feelings of frustration towards this family immediately changed to compassion and sorrow for them. He called this our paradime, a change in our perspective.

Ever since listening to this story and having my own experience I have been trying really hard to look at people differently. People are like these little cars so to speak, and inside there are souls with problems, heartache, feelings; individuals just trying to figure things out and make it through life just like me. I don't know what those other people around me are going through, or why they do what they do, but they all could use a little more love, a little more respect and a lot less of my evil glares and frustrated smuggy ways.

Sometimes I wonder how Christ could be so loving to all, no matter who they are. I have been burned by several different sort of "jerks" out there and I don't see how He could love someone that was SO rude to me. But with this new paradime, this new perspective, I can see that He loves them, because He KNOWs them. When I look at people sometimes all I see is entitled, self-centered, jerks; but when He looks at them, he sees what they are struggling with, He sees a person longing to feel loved, to feel important, to feel value, He sees someone that is doing everything they can to make it through in this life.

It all makes sense why one of Satan's tactics is to make us less personallable with people and more self obsorbed. The less we do to get to know others and understand their situations the more willing we are to judge them, to get frustrated and maybe even resent them. But the harder we work at trying to understand where they are coming from, what they are struggling with and see the beautiful value they have as a person, then the more peace we can also feel because we will be less likely to habor mean feelings at them.

So the next time I am on the road and I come accross a driver that does something that annoys me or even in regular life and I am in contact with people, I am gonna try a little harder to think about where they are coming from, to think about them more as an individual, a child of God, just like me. Will you?


Thanks again for stopping by and reading my rabbling thoughts. Come join me again next week for another Fall Feature where I will share some fun decorative blocks I put together.

Until next time. . .