Cruise Control
I used to commute to the "city". Often, as I drove home down I-40, my consciousness would fall. Down it would drift, while billions of bits of information would be absorbed, processed and appropriate directives given. Driving between the lines, avoiding others and passing exits all occurred with no memory. When my consciousness would finally be raised, by some external source that required it or merely acknowledged it, my thoughts would wander back over the moments that had passed. Where am I now? How long had I driven? How much longer till my next exit? Searching, I would accumulate enough clues to place me back into reality. Comfort settled in and I would check my cruise control.
Early on I immediately began to work on developing my cruise control. When one first learns to drive, every sense is working full throttle to interrupt all the data streaming in at 65 miles/hour. Everything has meaning; cars, road, wind, lines, temperature, birds, curbs, sunlight. Years of practice and repetition soon dull those things that have meaning until all one needs is cruise control and the consciousness can now fall.
I was born into church, baptized as an infant (in Christ) and assured of my forgone seat in heaven. As I traveled, my consciousness could now fall. Unaware of what I passed, approached or left behind, I worked on making the shortest distance between two points. It was comfortable. It was cruise control. So when I arrive and Jesus walks up to my car and asks, "How was you trip?" "I made it in 73 years 5 months and 12 days!" Patiently, he asks again, "No, how was your trip?" I would blankly think and no memory will come. My consciousness had never been stirred.
God please raise my consciousness, so that I may stop and help someone fix a flat, so that I will take an off ramp or two and get lost trying to find my way back (there is always a way back), so that when I show up and your Son asks, "How was your trip?" I can reply, "Man, you'll never believe what happened to me on the way here!"
7 comments:
Great analogy.
I also remember the distinct terror that gripped me as a new driver when I was adjusting to the road. It is a sense of being connected to something extremely powerful, being vulnerable to new risks and having access to unimaginable possibility all in the same moment. Those factors do not change, but we so easily forget! Our journey of faith offers similar opportunities with the same invitation to awe.
Excellent post! Sometimes we need a near accident to connect us back to an earlier time of fear and excitement.
Wow,
THAT makes me realize how deeply I need to live while I am on the road, not just cruise thorough it.
The person you are describing was not raising children. Children make you take the road less traveled all the time. Jesus didn't promise us a life of peace and comfort only a means of living through all the trials. We have to be like Job and just remain faithful. When we are ask how was the trip we can answer eventful but we arrived.
Absolutely, children will lead you down the road less traveled, but I wonder if the awareness that Jesus wants is beyond ourselves and family. How much time and effort do we spend building a construct so that we can travel uninhibited to the promised land? How much energy do I place selfishly into my own privileged child, neglecting all other children in the process? The consciousness I am curious about is above the fray of everyday life, that which is so difficult to shake off. For some, raising children requires every bit of consciousness, but for those who are blessed, much more is expected.
This is good stuff. It hearkens back to Zen & the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance somewhat.
I'll be in your neighborhood for most of the summer. I hope we can get together and have a drink and talk peace-making.
Take care, friend. See you soon.
Just finished Politics of Jesus. I now reading the History of Anabaptists by Eastep. We definitely need to get together.
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