Driver

Driver                                                          May 2020

We had a big problem in a company where I worked many years ago.   Whenever we had to take a field trip to examine a new location, Ben, the boss, insisted on driving the big agency SUV. This probably would have been fine except for one small detail.   Ben had no sense of direction and quite possibly was afflicted with dyslexia.   No one had the courage to tell him he had just turned south when the route wanted north. Every two-hour trip turned into a three- or four-hour trip.

I had come from the hotel industry. One day I couldn’t stand it anymore, and this is what I told Ben, “You know, when I was a hotel General Manager, I never drove. I had drivers to do that for me. This freed me up to work in the back seat, have an interview, talk on the phone, or eat my lunch on the way to the airport. I wouldn’t think of driving myself. My staff would have been embarrassed if I wouldn’t let them do their job.” Ben said, “I think I like that!” Things got better and we took turns engaging him in back seat conversations to stifle his intention to steer from the rear.

It’s fascinating when my buddy Stephen drives us somewhere. I see things I never noticed before. My lifelong interest in architecture is supplemented by the experience of new buildings along the way.   There are relationships between points of height and distant mountains as the near objects whiz by and the far hills count off our passage from their stately resting places. The power wires climb up to the pole then sag back down again as we slide by on the highway.

Often I think that we put The Boss in the backseat of our lives as we drive our own cars, our agendas. We think we know what is going to happen next. Anticipating the intersection ahead we start planning to proceed, turn left, turn right, or turn back and that occupies too much of our thinking. Keeping us from seeing where we are at the moment is a distraction. Legend has it that Italian race car drivers tear off the rear view mirror and toss it aside. “The race is anot awon by knowing what isah behinah you.”

The point? Let The Father, The Big Boss, drive the car of your life. He knows where to take you for the best effect in a straight ahead fashion. He knows where you can win and how to get you there. There is much talk these days about things getting back to normal. Only God knows what that new normal will be. If we put Him in control, then we can focus on what is right outside our window today. We need to look ahead with anticipation, but we should not wait for X, Y, or Z to happen before we do His Plan. It is time to get out of our comfortable rut and return to doing what we are meant to do in our work, our churches, our schools, and our daily activities. God doesn’t want us sitting around the house all day fearful of this year’s Killer Bees, Killer Flu, or Killer Terrorists. If He is in charge, He has promised us that trusting Him will be rewarded with His protection. Let Him be the Driver.

You can find over 100 of Bob’s previous articles at https://aguynamedbobblog.wordpress.com