Life lessons learned in stand-still traffic.

Morning traffic. Whether you live in Helena, Montana (first city that popped into my head. I attribute it to a lingering state and capitals song I learned in fourth grade I can't quite shake), San Diego, or Tulsa Oklahoma, it is an inevitable part of the commute in some way, shape or form. Whether your commute is ten minutes, or forty-five, if you don't account for the unexpected on the road, there is a possibility that traffic flow may place you in an unexpected and often frustrating time crunch.

My commute to work each morning is give or take twenty minutes. That is a choice I made in choosing my place of residence. The benefits of my choice seemed to outweigh the distance of the commute at the time. However, when I am pouring my coffee to rush out the door ten minutes later than I planned, I sometimes question my decision.

A couple of months ago, a friend introduced me to a news service that texted free weather and traffic updates. The service seems to be reliable. It sent me an alert for a tornado warning a few weeks back that I slept through. It was still sent nonetheless. The news stations can't be held accountable for my heavy sleeping patterns. Anyways, until this week, I had never received a traffic alert through this texting system. I assumed they weren't as vigilent in this area as they were in the weather department. I was wrong.

Monday morning, I received a text alert stating there was a wreck causing a large backup on the first highway I take on my commute downtown. I glanced at the message, but assumed it could not be that bad and would clear up by the time I got in my car. Thirty minutes later as I was walking outside to my car, I received another alert stating there was another accident on the second highway I would have to travel on. Being directionally challenged (all of the time) and bit groggy in the morning, I made the decision to take my usual route. There is usually a bit of traffic every morning, especially on Mondays, so surely it would not be much different than that, right?

I quickly realized that I should have taken the side roads, all the traffic lights included, in order to make it to work in half of the time I did. However, there was no turning back. My spedometer read 0 for a good 20 minutes of my commute, and I was elated when I could reach a wopping 5 mph at times. I was in standstill traffic.

There are certain situations that bring out the worst in people, and I strongly believe that traffic is one of those. Impatience, frustration, rashness, an unsolicited raise of a certain finger. Road rage if you will. Take your pick. Though these emotions range in action and intensity, they all have one thing in common. They are rooted out of looking out for number one. Selfishness.

Last week, a friend and I decided to challenge each other with a "doing" statement each week to focus on. Last week's was "do not focus on yourself or esteem yourself better than others." That all sounds great in theory, but when it became a focus, I realized I was failing miserably and that practicing the things you learn is hard and can not be done without effort, accountability or help of the Spirit.

The moment the traffic came to a standstill, my selfish inclinations became evident. I quickly caught myself and let out a big sigh, dissapointed that my human nature had once again taken over. I took a deep breath and began to pray and think. I had about an hour ahead of me in the car, and if I wasn't going to spend it tapping my foot and looking at the clock, I had to occupy my thoughts elsewhere. As I sat there, I began think about and wonder why traffic and other life situations make us feel the way they do.

1. We view others' misfortune as our inconvenience. Most of the time I am sitting in traffic, I am thinking about my schedule, my clock at work, and the best way for me to get to my exit on the highway quickly. It pains to me think how long it takes my mind to reach the point where I am thinking about the wreck causing the backup and the individuals involved in it.
2. People say worry is like a rocking chair. I think impatience is too. No matter how many times we honk our horns or rev or engines, and no matter how many dirty looks or gestures we give to the surrounding vehicles, our situation isn't made any better by our actions. They, in fact, make it worse. We make ourselves miserable with our emotions. Perhaps there is joy to be found even in our cars with our foot on the break in morning traffic. We choose to deny it though.
3. We too often worship time and a schedule. This is one I struggle with. In my book, if you aren't ten minutes early you are late. I love a to do list, especially one with time slots inserted for each item. When something or someone interferes with that schedule, I immediately let my mind enter into panic mode. Here's the thing, though. Life isn't a schedule. It's not a list. The unexpected happens, and we can't control everything (Not having control? What a concept. Maybe I should write that on my mirror), It's what we do with that lack of control and those unscheduled, unaccounted for traffic jams that will define our emotions and the way we choose to live our life.

Eventually I made it to work on Monday. The world didn't end because I was late. My to do list still got done. And making the conscious decision to remove impatience set the tone for my whole day, not just my commute. Tuesday morning I woke up to a text traffic alert. This time I heeded the warning, but still headed for the highway. I got on, pushed on my brakes, and looked ahead. Even though it wasn't planned out, this time on the road was given to me by the Lord.

Lord, teach me to love traffic jams, teach me to see joy wherever I may be, teach me to think of others first, and teach me to embrace each moment you give me, not just the scheduled ones. Let me see you in the unscheduled, chaotic moments I encounter each day.