DRIVING MYSELF TO INSANITY

1 Peter 2: 19-20 “For this finds favor, if for the sake of conscience toward God a person bears up under sorrows when suffering unjustly. For what credit is there if, when you sin and are harshly treated, you endure it with patience? But if when you do what is right and suffer for it you patiently endure it, this finds favor with God.”

Aside from my dad, who is the epitome of “patience”, I always considered myself a fairly patient person. It usually takes quite a lot for me to get riled up... except, when I am driving. Behind the wheel, I become a different person. I can so easily become that road-rage fiend. Knowing this tendency, I started taking the back roads whenever possible and giving myself lots of travel-time. Avoiding the “race” is removing myself from the temptation to “compete” and is far more relaxing. Still, there are many opportunities to cross paths with “stupid drivers.” My immediate suspicion is that they are either on drugs or on their cell phones, and from there I continue to seethe and boil beneath the skin – and commentate – of course.

So just the other day I asked myself, “How is this helping?” “What is the point?” These other drivers are not out to “get me,” they are merely trying to make their way from point A to B. At the same time, they also are struggling through their own issues and problems, with other things on their minds, feeling lost because their GPS isn’t working, feeling tired and irritated, et cetera. (Et cetera including things like addictions to drugs and cell phones, and being “stupid-drivers”...) BUT, and THEREFORE, I am not a victim in this – THIS is merely the circumstance. My impatience is only hurting myself, and annoying any passengers I may have with me. AND if my anger would ever reach a boiling point where I would not be thinking clearly, this could cause an accident – which could hurt a lot of other people. Sobering thought!

The virtue of patience is not something one necessarily inherits. I’m sure for some people it may come more naturally than others depending on their personalities, but it is certainly something to work at. Patience requires a strength, not only to rein back the anger, but to be forgiving and considerate of others so you don’t even reach that point.