{"id":1209,"date":"2015-07-24T15:08:59","date_gmt":"2015-07-24T15:08:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.choosingcomedy.com\/?p=1209"},"modified":"2015-07-24T15:19:53","modified_gmt":"2015-07-24T15:19:53","slug":"driving-lessons-for-the-road-and-beyond","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.choosingcomedy.com\/?p=1209","title":{"rendered":"Driving lessons for the road and beyond"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"IMG_0999\"<\/a><\/p>\n

A friend encouraged me today. \u00a0(How important that is! \u00a0If you have given thanks for someone or thought positively about someone you love- share it with them! \u00a0It’s like a cup of water along a marathon\u00a0– so needed.)<\/p>\n

Reflecting on her words my thoughts started spinning…wholeheartedly, running a race with endurance, not giving up, keeping our eyes on Jesus the author (the source) and perfecter (the editor) of our faith.<\/p>\n

Which took me to driving. \u00a0I live in the Motor City, with a Car Guy. \u00a0It’s always going to be about driving folks.<\/p>\n

This idea of keeping my eyes on Jesus. \u00a0This is key. \u00a0This is how we keep going where we should be going. \u00a0How do I know this? \u00a0Driving.<\/p>\n

In drivers’ education, when I was learning how to handle a monster of a machine, I was taught to look ahead in a curve or turn, because my hands would steer where my eyes were looking.<\/p>\n

I tried it and it was like magic! \u00a0I didn’t have to guess how much to turn the steering wheel at every point in the curve, if I kept my eyes on the road ahead, my hands steered me there almost without thinking!<\/p>\n

Of course\u00a0the alternative is also true: if I look away from the road *shocking* my hands steer me the direction my eyes are looking. \u00a0(Thank you rumble strips.)<\/p>\n

\n

Keep my eyes on Jesus. \u00a0Then I will walk toward him.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

And then there’s the Michigan left. \u00a0I love the Michigan left, it is such a good\u00a0life analogy!<\/p>\n

In Michigan, where we have a lot of large multi lane roads with boulevards, you cannot just turn left in any given intersection. \u00a0Frequently, if you want to go left, you must first turn right.<\/p>\n

That’s right. \u00a0To get to where you want to be you must first turn away from it, completely, go in the exact opposite direction. \u00a0Then, after a bit, you will be able to turn back to your intended destination.<\/p>\n

Anyone who\u00a0wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me (Jesus) will find it.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Then, of course, there is the idea of speed, and the physics principal: the faster you\u00a0go the longer it will take you to stop. \u00a0That’s really important at night. \u00a0My driver’s ed teacher repeated again and again that we should not overdrive our headlights.<\/p>\n

“Overdriving your headlights means not being able to stop inside the illuminated area ahead. It is difficult to judge other vehicles’ speeds and distances at night. Do not overdrive your headlights\u2014it creates a blind ‘crash area’ in front of your vehicle. You should be able to stop inside the illuminated area ahead.” \u00a0Thank you driversed.com<\/span><\/p>\n

If God’s word is a light unto my feet, what would it mean to overdrive that light?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

How we drive impacts others. \u00a0Sometimes it literally\u00a0impacts others. \u00a0I have worked hard this week to not be impacted by other drivers. \u00a0Perhaps they weren’t paying attention, or made a bad judgement call, and I had to do some quick maneuvering to avoid contact.<\/span><\/p>\n

My walk impacts others. \u00a0The author of Hebrews tells us we are surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses. It’s true. \u00a0People are watching. \u00a0Your kids are watching. \u00a0How ya driving?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

My driver’s education teacher was a man called Mr. Martin. \u00a0He was a nervous man who had a brake on the passenger side of the car. And he wasn’t afraid to use it. \u00a0I told him he was paranoid once, he vehemently denied it! \u00a0Then he asked what paranoid meant.<\/p>\n

I called him paranoid\u00a0decades before I ever attempted to teach my own kids to drive. \u00a0Like my father always says, Just because you’re paranoid, doesn’t mean they’re not out to get you. (from Catch 22)<\/p>\n

Well Mr. Martin, if you were afraid, it probably wasn’t paranoia, it was probably valid fear! \u00a0Teaching teens to drive is no task for the faint of heart.<\/p>\n

But let me just say, Thanks. \u00a0Your driving lessons have come in very handy, on and off the road.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A friend encouraged me today. \u00a0(How important that is! \u00a0If you have given thanks for someone or thought positively about someone you love- share it with them! \u00a0It’s like a cup of water along a marathon\u00a0– so needed.) Reflecting on her words my thoughts started spinning…wholeheartedly, running a race with endurance, not giving up, keeping […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1209","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2O0qX-jv","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.choosingcomedy.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1209","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.choosingcomedy.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.choosingcomedy.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.choosingcomedy.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.choosingcomedy.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1209"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"http:\/\/www.choosingcomedy.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1209\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1218,"href":"http:\/\/www.choosingcomedy.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1209\/revisions\/1218"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.choosingcomedy.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1209"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.choosingcomedy.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1209"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.choosingcomedy.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1209"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}