Stoplights & Slow People

Does this picture look somewhat familar? Well, for me, the location doesn't, but the stoplights do. it looks like a dreary fall day, probably right about 5:00. The best time to be on the road! Or not. You'll have to let me be a little transparent here -- as I'm about to bear all in front of my millions of readers.

I grew up in a small rural town in Southern Illinois. Traffic was rarely an issue, and when it was, I simply drove faster -- and around it. College wasn't much of a problem either, mainly because I spent so much time studying there wasn't time to drive in traffic. When I first came to Huntsville, I lived about a mile from work. Little did I know how awesome that was -- a 3 minute drive to and from work every day. Then a year ago, we moved. Now the drive to work is probably 10 miles, and it has taken me anywhere from 13 to 39 minutes to get to work (and yes, I time it 4/5 days). What started as minor annoyances (stoplights, 4-way stops with long lines, slow people in fast lanes, slow people in slow lanes, people who don't use turn signals, people who refuse to tap the accelerator when the light turns green, people who pull out in front of me and then drive 10 MPH below the speed limit)...has become my downfall. It's probably been about 8 or 9 months that I've been struggling with sin while driving.

At Bible study the other night, I admitted my problem to many (though my accountability group had known for awhile). So for the last week I fought like crazy to avoid yelling at people who couldn't hear me, yelling or even flipping birds to inanimate stoplights, cursing in the middle of singing praise songs, etc. Satan surely tempted to think "A son of the living God, don't you have better things to concern yourself with than little things that no one really knows about -- like praying for your fellow brother or your neighbor or giving to the poor or some scripture memory?" But that is trap -- trying to cover up sin with more 'good things.' Or, one better, like Derek Webb says in his "I Repent" song: "By trading sins for others that are easier to hide." For after all, "The good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart, and the evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in his heart. For out of the overflow of his heart his mouth speaks. (Luke 6:45)"

To make a long story even longer, this week was a good one -- not perfect, but much better, focusing on mind AND PRAYING that I not be a road-rage guy. I really think humbling myself and praying that God deliver me from this seemingly trivial sin (that is really quite serious) was the key to fighting, for trying to do these things alone is difficult and most of time impossible. Friday topped it off, as I got in the mail a CD from Desiring God ministries, "Battling the Unbelief of Impatience," a sermon by John Piper - a gift to all in the Phillipian Fellowship. Honestly, I chuckled when I read the title and hardly even needed to listen to it -- first, the root of my problem is unbelief, and I am suffering from impatience, which is really doubting God's timing. More than that, I have been cursing God's timing in my heart, and I repent. How about that timing in sending me a CD on impatience? Gotta love it.