I’ve been ruminating about … driving
I have a confession to make. Better that I get if off my chest right now. If an examination was taken of my driving habits over the decades, I may well fail. The truth is, when I’m driving I can be both intolerant and impatient. (Not that these particular sins of mine are exclusive to the inside of a car.)
There’s an infamous incident that my daughters regularly remind me of. I was driving in the city with them, when a young driver pulled a less-than-clever overtaking manoeuvre, causing me to brake hard. Instinctively, I tooted – to let him know I was not impressed. The response was the proverbial one-finger salute. This made my blood boil. After all, he was the one who had driven carelessly, not me. Noticing my reaction, my daughter leaned over and taunted, “Oooh, a bit of road rage, eh Dad?” My reaction: “It’s not road rage, it’s road frustration!”
I’ve been mocked ever since.
Let’s add into the mix my impatience. I walk fast, I talk fast, I think fast, I eat fast, I work fast. The natural gears in my psyche only have two speeds – quick and very quick. Plus, I like being on time. If I say I will be somewhere at 2pm I will do everything I can to be there. I hate being late.
Particularly annoying to me is when drivers don’t show consideration for other road users. When Driver A, moving at 70kmh, can’t keep left, allowing others to pass, or speeds up 30kmh at every available passing lane, I get irritated. And when Driver B’s car speed goes up and down like a yo-yo due to having one hand on a cellphone I’m tempted to run them off the road!
Phew!! I’ve got it all out on the table. That feels so much better!
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I have a fair idea why I get so agitated behind the wheel of a motor vehicle. I also know that if my faith is to be truly authentic, it needs to make a difference to my driving.
However, having admitted to my road frustration, it would be easy me to conclude that connecting my faith to my driving simply means being more respectful of other road users. And while that’s clearly a real challenge for me (!) there’s a lot more to it than becoming a little more considerate, patient, longsuffering and gracious on the road.
Let me put it another way: the call to follow Jesus is a call to become better lovers. But this is not just about loving other drivers. It also means learning to love God, love myself, love those who don’t share the road with me, love the generations to come, and love the planet. That’s a whole-lotta loving! What’s more, love should mark not just how I drive, but why and when I drive, who I drive with, and even maybe what type of vehicle I drive.
This probably sounds a little abstract and you may even be wondering what particular narcotic I took this morning before I wrote this (answer: it was just coffee).
So perhaps I’ll frame it through that great biblical passage on love – 1 Corinthians 13. I’ve taken some liberties with Paul’s words – and the various translators I draw from. I hope they don’t mind.
Even if I’m just returning home after speaking at a church meeting or performing some act of kindness, but don’t drive with courtesy and care for others on the road, I am nothing but a clanging cymbal.
Even if I’m really generous to the poor, but don’t think twice about how my unnecessary and frivolous trips in the car are affecting the environment, I gain nothing.
You see,
Driving with love for others is patient (not pushy and aggressive).
It does not boast of how nice my car is – subconsciously thinking that I’m more together than I really am because of the wheels I own.
Love doesn’t want what it doesn’t have – coveting someone else’s nice vehicle and dreaming of how much better my life would be if I could afford the same car.
Driving lovingly means caring more for others than self – which may mean that I choose to travel more with others than I do alone, or even driving less often, in support of a more sustainable future for the next generation.
Driving with love isn’t always “me first” – as if I have more right to use the road than the cyclist or pedestrian.
Love doesn’t fly off the handle (or use offensive hand gestures when some other driver cuts me off).
One day commuting will come to an end. We won’t need cars anymore. But loving God and others will continue – it will be just expressed in different forms.
When I was a child, I talked like a child, I reasoned like a child. I indulged in fantasies about where I would drive to escape the realities of life. And I gave little thought to how my use of a car might impact on my relationships to God, others, and the world. It was just a tool to be used.
But now that I’m an adult, I realise that maturity means not only driving responsibly, but connecting my faith with how I use the resources God has entrusted me with – including my car.
Now we see these matters as poorly as looking through the windscreen on a wet and rainy night. One day we will see clear as day.
Until then though, three things will guide us toward such clarity – trusting in God (and not in our cars); hoping for a time when we are once-and-for-all liberated from the destructive aspects of our addiction to cars; and seeking to love Jesus, other people and creation through our driving.
But the greatest of these is love.
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