Stop light
What a glorious morning!
Another day of driving… nothing far but jump in the car and go here, and then jump back in the car and go there. When you zip around town a lot you learn quickly that often you are at the whim of other drivers. You have to follow other drivers, you sometimes have to avoid other drivers, you have to in some instances work with other drivers in order for traffic to flow smoothly. Signals are a necessity because they let you know what other people are doing and they let other people know what you are about to do. So the other day in my traversing the valley in my car, I find myself at a stoplight at a major intersection wanting to make a left hand turn. The traffic at the other side of the intersection opposite me was rather crowded. But while on the side of the intersection I was on there were three lanes, right hand turn, straight and left hand turn so people knew where you were going simply by what lane you were in, the traffic facing you only had one lane so you had to rely on their blinkers to determine the direction they were about to take. So I am front of the line. I need to make a left hand turn and I’m in my proper lane and my left hand blinker is blinking away. Across the road there is a truck facing me and it is sitting in the one lane with no blinker. Now my assumption is that since there is no blinker, the truck must be coming toward me, straight across the intersection. After all if they were turning left, they would have a left hand blinker on, and the same if they were turning right. No blinker, so I sit and wait for the truck to come across the intersection, and I sit and I wait and the truck sits there and waits as well. So there is a lot of sitting and not much going while the light is green. Finally, the truck with no turn signal, barrels across the intersection and makes a left hand turn – clearly he had been waiting for me to go so we could do the left hand turn together. But how was I to know since he didn’t have his turn signal on?? How much time would have been saved – and I’m sure the cars behind each of us would have been much happier had we simply been able to go when the light turned green – but no, the lack of a turn signal clogged up the whole intersection. But do we do the same thing in our walking through life as a follower of Christ? How will anyone know why we do what we do if there are no signals that Christ is important to us? If we never signal to anyone the priorities we are to have, how will anyone know the direction of our lives? Just as signals are important to traffic, signals are important to heed our role as Christ’s people – letting others know that Jesus and his work are what make us who we are. So don’t forget to turn on and use your signals!!
Amen!!
Joanne
These devotions began in 2006 as a way to give us a midweek boost as we live out our lives as the people of God!