Red Lights, Relaxation, and No Return
I’ve never heard admiration about a red light before, but here I was, listening to the observations and opinions of a 16-year old about the wonderful waiting of a stop signal. To me, a red light is something that hinders me, slows me down, or causes pause. But to this adolescent with his drivers permit he saw the red light as a chance to chill out and relax.
I wanted to instinctively say he was crazy but he continued to convey the wonders of waiting. In fact he loved red lights so much he told a story of sitting in a turning lane and zoning out through another cycle of red-yellow-and green! It was hilarious if not extremely frustrating for anyone waiting behind him.
I can appreciate a new perspective on a regular, every day occurance. It can be a fresh take on red lights. Maybe a new twist on dinner. Maybe it’s a new look for your regular commute. When the mundane and regular take on a new look it might not be life changing but it adds some new perspective to the normal.
I wish I had a red light a mile before our truck careened into the back of a tractor trailer. It could have slowed us down so that we weren’t faced with a sad, sorry-looking Toyota. There was confusion in front of the semi-truck and an ever-decreasing amount of space for us to squeak by and our family slid into a massive steel beam in the back of the trailer. With a thud, some scraping metal, and a massive sigh from yours truly we slowly came to grips that our great American road trip was now in jeopardy.
I slinked off the side of the road and once I knew everyone was ok I got out to survey the damage. It wasn’t pretty; in fact I had to pry the fender away from the door in order to get out. My poor truck’s face was rearranged with bumpers protruding, fenders flared, and headlights hanging sadly from the front end. There was paint missing, trim pieces across the exit ramp, and the hood kinda had this wrinkle like it was grimacing before the impact. It was a sad scene.
As the dad and husband in the situation I was tasked with how to make this work. I immediately began to think of how to get this whole traveling circus back to Pennsylvania. We had traveled 8 hours into Indiana this morning and now I needed to get the 4 of us and all of our gear back home. Once back home I could load our other vehicle and we could try this voyage again. We would lose 16 hours of driving and probably our sanity.
Or we could just go home and bag the whole trip. Forget it. Cut our losses. Lose our reservations but play it safe. We could just say it wasn’t meant to be.
So in this crisis of belief I had to choose. Which way to go…back to what we knew and try again or just go back? If they were the only two options it sure wasn’t much fun to choose. Both seemed like a retreat, a surrender, like we were cheating something special that could be right in front of us. Everything else that lined up for us before the trip seemed to point West.
But just like my 16-year old runner told me, sometimes red lights are nice to have because you can relax. And while we weren’t at a red light in Indiana our situation did cause us to stop and, well, relax. We had to think through this. Despite the drizzling rain and the twisted hunk of metal that we called our truck we did have options. And despite my runners love of sitting at red lights eventually the light turns green and you have to go. So our decision was made for our truck and our trip. We wouldn’t turn around. We wouldn’t go back. We were going to keep going the direction we were called to go.
With so many parts rearranged it was a major miracle that nothing touched the suspension. There were no leaks and no catastrophic mechanical maladies. The truck looked rough but it idled on the road like it was ready to crush the next 4000 miles. I had to perform minor surgery with an angle grinder to cut away the bumper that would only allow us to turn left but once that was done we were heading towards our destination. There was no retreat and no returning to the way things were before. If we were gonna head west we needed to keep rolling west, even with our bumps and bruises.
I think we are in a time where we want to get to a destination. It can be a physical location or just a point in life where it’s a goal, priority, or way to live. The promised land looks so…promising! But the journey to get there isn’t always what it’s cracked up to be. There are pesky red lights. There are accidents. There are those moments where you really have to drill down on what you believe and Who you believe in. Those moments of stopping, reflecting, and contemplating are crucial. But you can’t just sit there forever. That would be like a teenager sitting through endless cycles of red-green-yellow! There is a moment in that crisis of belief that you have to move forward. Not backwards. Not a return to what was known. The only way to experience and grow is to go…forward.
We made it the whole way to Colorado. The truck was thirsty and drank it’s far share of gasoline but it got us all there safe and secure. We saw amazing things and our family bonded through the sites and scenes of that great American road trip. We met new and old friends and I raced my bicycle. To top it all off I would say that our trip was BETTER with the accident; that crisis taught us a lot about moving along even when things appear bleak. Had we returned after that accident we would have a story, but nothing like the story of continuing to go when adversity struck! Living a life of faith is a gamble, it’s a stretch, and it’s trusting that the unseen is exactly where we need to go. We can enjoy the rest of a red light but if we don’t move when it turns green we’re missing the experience of driving. We can believe in God but if we don’t let him lead what are we really believing in? And we can say we want to share Jesus but if we live life on our terms what are we sharing?
The next time you roll up to a red light I hope it changes your perspective. I also hope when it turns green you aren’t afraid to go! Go big, go far, just don’t go back and miss what’s ahead. You’ll be glad you did.
