I was driving home the other day from my doctor’s office. As I pulled out of the parking lot and turned onto the road leading to the highway, I began to think of what we discussed in the exam room. You see, every week I go to my doctor and he has my blood checked to see what progress or relapse has taken place in my body.
They can draw my blood and provide the results within 15 minutes. This particular day the results were not so good. So, as I left the office and started my drive home, I was thinking about what we discussed in that exam room just a few minutes earlier. You know how you can drift off into a thought for a moment but somehow still be aware of your actions at the time. Well, this is where I was as I was driving down the road.
As I came to the entrance of the freeway, I put my turn signal on and made a right turn onto the entrance ramp. Still, in my frame of mind and with the thoughts of speaking to my doctor, I proceeded onto the main freeway. I turned on my radio to listen to some Christian music that would direct my attention to my Lord and Savior and off of the news from my doctor.
Now, I was a few miles down the freeway headed home and I realized that from the time I turned right and enter the freeway, traveling for the last few miles, I had not turned off my turn signal and is was still blinking on the dash board. Of course, I reached down and turned it off as I proceeded down the road back home.
I began to think of how many people had passed me during that stretch of highway, seeing me driving along in the center lane with my right turn signal on and thinking to themselves, "What is this person doing? Is he going to move to the right lane or is he just oblivious?"
As I reached down to turn off the turn signal, I thought about how we all move through this world, driving our car on a freeway or road, walking through a store, standing in line at a fast food restaurant, or even grouped in a crowd at church or an event.
I was thinking of seeing all those people through my lifetime and viewing the looks on their face or even the way they stand or walk. Maybe you have been frustrated because they are not moving fast enough or are not paying attention to move up in the line and it gets you frustrated and anxious.
Sometimes you want to move at your own pace and have a free clearing lane to go as fast or as slow you want to, wherever you are! You may think to yourself, "Why are these people not paying attention? They must be off in another world somewhere!"
The answer is YES, THEY ARE! Maybe not all of them, but some are, and we cannot tell who is and who is not. Maybe they are facing something great in their life at this moment. Maybe they just lost a loved one or wondering where their next meal is going to come from. Maybe they just received bad news about someone they know and are in that place of deep thought of how they can grasp it or even help.
How often do we all look at others in our life, people we know and people we don’t know, and we make a quick assumption, of how they’re not in step with what is present? Sometimes, it is obvious to us and we understand and have mercy and grace toward them. However, it’s the unknown that makes us to wonder and sometimes judge.
You are standing on the shore of a beach looking out over the ocean. The sea is as calm as glass without even a ripple of a wave. But what is unseen is the life that lies below, the current of God’s creatures and creation, a movement that is unseen from above. We only see the calm and stillness, but God sees both halves at the same time.
He knows that at times the surface will be in chaos, and at times what lies below will be calm. He understands its purpose and He provides the grace to allow it to work together. We are given grace so that as we see any chaos before us, we allow grace to abound in that moment.
The next time you see someone, somewhere, maybe standing in a line in front of you, or in a traffic jam, in a store or a crowd, or even on the highway driving down the road, mile after mile with their turn signal on and paying no attention to correcting their situation. Just give them a moment or forgive them because they may have drifted off into thought about a desperate time that is going on in their life and they need just a moment to gather themselves back to where they are.
Give them time to hear that clicking sound in front of them, give them time to look down and see that green arrow blinking on their dashboard and give them time to reach down and turn off their turn signal.
They just need a moment to gather themselves and need someone that may be standing close by, to allow God a moment of mercy to pour His loving touch into their life, and for you to stand in that gap, just in this moment, for this person.
Maybe God has placed you in that line, in that crowd, or on that road, just to see, The Turn Signal!
Maybe it’s you who needs that moment.
Maybe it’s your: Turn Signal!
Mercy
Matthew 5:7
Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy.
Forgiveness
Ephesians 4: 29-32
29 Let no corrupt word proceed out of your mouth, but what is good for necessary edification, that it may impart grace to the hearers. 30 And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. 31 Let all bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, and evil speaking be put away from you, with all malice.
32 And be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God in Christ forgave you.
