Lessons I’ve Learned at a Red Light

Hello, hello friends; I am back once again with many new ideas and things that I’ve learned. I’ve had a week of opportunity for driving and thus learning! And I’ve enjoyed every minute of it. I began my Saturday morning with a five-hour drive to a Texas town and a very cool little coffee shop called “Sly Fox Coffee.” This drive allowed me the pleasure of finishing a book called “Facing the Beast” by Naomi Wolf. I will detail what I learned in next week’s post.

Lessons I’ve Learned at a Red Light

I have an obnoxiously long and inconsistent red light that I have to deal with every morning when I go to work or church. 90% of the time when I deal with this light, it is a left turn that I need to make, and so I have no choice but to wait until I finally get the green light to go. I have for a long time had an odd fascination with traffic lights as the mathematical systems and sensors that allow for the smooth governing of traffic. And yet here at this particular light, most often at 5:00 am in the morning, I find myself thinking of some deeper meanings, the waiting, the frustration, the sometimes quick and seamless transition from red to green perfectly timed to my arrival. The lessons I’ve learned and am still learning.

• Waiting for the green light

I have found in my life that I am not a very patient person. I have found so many instances in my life that I am eagerly awaiting the green light to move to do something other than simply waiting for the proper time. Yet the reality is that should I go when the light is still Red I am risking running into the crossing traffic. I risk catastrophe and ruin not only in my own life but also adversely effecting or ruining someone else’s. So we sit and we wait for the green light not only for our own good but also for the good of others.

• Prolonged red lights

I have also learned that sometimes the “Prolonged and annoying red light” is the perfect moment for me to reflect my own life and listen for the voice of God before the chaos of the day and life begin. During the prolonged wait, I often find myself saying a prayer as I begin my day. I wish I could say that this is what I do consistently but I have found most often what I do is a anxiously glance back and fourth waiting for the green light. I find I get annoyed that despite the fact that there is no traffic, the light is still NOT turning green! I KNOW that the light will eventually turn green. I simply don’t want or like to wait.

• Trust the “System” Trust the “Process”

As much as I am fascinated by the traffic light system, it is a system I do not understand; I don’t know how the sensors track each vehicle, and I don’t understand what the algorithms are doing. But what I do know is that despite the fact that I do not understand the system, I know it works, and it creates order. If I or if we ignore the process what we will find is very quickly there is utter chaos.

So too I know that the “process of God” works, I know that if I follow His plans and live in His design it is my only true chance at a successful and flourishing life. I know His plan has never failed and even when I don’t understand why I have always been able to look back and see that ultimately God has nothing but the best for me and that He ultimately spared me from disaster. This is something that I have repeatedly found myself thinking about as I look back at an engagement that broke off before it marriage. In that season and in that moment of life, I fought and rebelled against the fallout of that relationship ending. Yet, as I’ve looked back now years later, I can honestly see God’s hand in it and Him sparing me from a much worse fallout.

• Waiting your turn

Another lesson of annoyance is that often, while waiting at the red light, waiting for my left turn, I find others who are turning right. They pull up and look to see if it’s clear, and as soon as they see it’s clear, they continue on their way while I continue to sit and wait. Here, too, I find a personal life lesson: despite the fact that I have waited longer, it doesn’t mean I will get to go before the others.

• Know your destination

Here’s the reason others often go before us, they do not share the same destination as us. When I pull up to the light, I know my destination, I know where I’m trying to go, and so I pull up to the left lane, despite the fact that I know it may require me to wait if I want to arrive at my destination I have to simply wait. I could If I really wanted to, I could get to my destination if I got in the right lane, but doing so ultimately would take just as long or perhaps even longer than if I just waited my turn at the light.

Knowing my destination and knowing my goal is the only way I can begin to navigate toward it. So, as I sit at that light, I have to ask myself, do I know my destination? All the systems and traffic lights in the world will not help me if I don’t first set a destination. So I have to ask myself the question, “Do I know my destination?” And if I do, then I have to commit to the journey.

• Invest in your Navigation system

What is your navigation system? Have you invested in a good navigation system that you can trust? I think many of us, myself included, take for granted the fact that we have a navigation system sitting in our pocket, on our nightstands, or on our bookshelves that has consistently guided millions to their destination if they simply follow its instructions. Yet all too often, rather than trust the navigation system, we try to go our own way, thinking we can better plan the route needed to follow to get to our destination.

I can say I have often tried to forgo following my navigation system, thinking I know better and so rather than getting to my destination ahead of schedule I generally find that it takes longer and takes far more effort and follows far more twists and turns as a result.

• Take a risk

The last lesson I want to share and this one I learned this morning. This morning, a Saturday morning at 5:00 am, I once again found myself sitting at that very obnoxious red light, waiting and waiting. Finally, after waiting for a time that seemed longer than necessary, I decided I would make a left while the light was still red. Since it was Saturday and I could clearly see there was no traffic coming my way, I took the risk and turned to begin my journey of a five-hour drive.

I do not recommend running red lights by any means, as I hope all the lessons above have been detailed. At the same time, we have to take risks in life. Sometimes, we have to make a move and risk rejection; we have to take risks in life. Not all decisions in life are easy, and often, they come with the risk of failure. There is a risk that things will not go as we had hoped, but if we do our best to evaluate the situation and do our best to make an informed decision. Often, all we can do is, by faith, trust the final outcome of God above.

Last week, as I was sitting at my favorite coffee shop, I overheard a table of Moms talking, and soon I found the Holy Spirit prompting me to say something; after much internal struggling, I finally introduced myself and told them of my Blog/Substack as it pertained to the subjects I write about. Now today, as I sit here in this very cool little coffee shop in Belton, Texas called “Sly Fox,” I found myself again prompted by the Holy Spirit to say something to the table next to me who was talking about relationships and even the subject of the Amish. After much internal struggle, I finally decided to introduce myself, and I was able to have a brief but great conversation with them and share with them a little of my story and share with them this substack page, a platform where I hope to be able to grow my audience and share my story and hopefully in some small way help someone somewhere with the words I write here.

• A brief message to my friends, once strangers at “Sly Fox”

Bailey, Mary, and Jared, if you read this, I hope God blesses you on your journey. I don’t know where God will take you in your own journey but I pray God blesses you on it. It is so cool to see how these little moments of life allow us to connect with someone who is part of the body of Christ, and though we may never meet again on this earth, one day in eternity, we will all reconnect and be able to share the stories of our life and the journey, the adventure of life we led while here on this earth! May God bless you!

And to you, all my friends and family, I hope you have enjoyed learning along with me as I continue to share the revelations and lessons of God through the books I read, the podcasts I listen to, and those uncomfortable moments of my own story where God prompts me to step out of my comfort zone to meet a stranger and blesses me in the process!