Christmas Lights

I’m the most unlike Christ when I’m driving.

Put me behind a wheel, and I become entitled, impatient, and angry.

I guess those emotions are always inside me, but that’s a topic for another day.

This week I was driving to a friend’s house and used Apple Maps which was my first mistake. Never use Apple Maps.

The male British disembodied voice told me to turn left onto a road that didn’t exist.

Florida is throwing up houses and roads left and right, but not quick enough that a road will magically appear when I turn left into a field.

But it was dark, so I just knew I had missed the turn.

Only after I had turned around and Siri told me to turn right did I realize that turn required going off-road which my little red Elantra was not prepared to do.

My anger was building as I had to drive half a mile in the wrong direction to find place to turn around again, but more importantly stop and safely switch to Google maps.

While in that random neighborhood, I knew I had to turn right to get back on the main road, but I somehow still managed to turn too soon—which Google promptly informed me and continued to inform me about even though I was yelling, “I know! I know I turned the wrong way! If you would just shut up for 2 seconds and let me get back to the main road then I’ll listen to your annoying voice telling me which way to go!”

I don’t ever wonder why I’m still single.

As I was yelling at my phone and looking for a new place to turn around, I found a road with Christmas lights decorating every house.

For a brief moment in the midst of my anger and frustration, God told me to slow down and enjoy the beauty around me. I actually listened, and it was lovely.

I wasn’t looking for God, but He was looking for me. 

That’s what Christmas is about—celebrating the God who came to us.

Maybe you’ve mastered the art of not letting the Holiday season get the best of you, but I haven’t mastered that lesson yet. December feels like it moves faster than all the other months, and I can never quite catch my breath.

To claim that my little detour has completely changed my heart and made me an expert at looking for God in everything would be a gross exaggeration. I wish that were the case, but I’m a slow learner with a patient teacher.

I don’t even want to chance using Apple Maps again for fear of another teaching moment.

But God’s great patience humbles me and makes it harder for me to be impatient with others (or myself) during this crazy time of year.

I hope we all can be encouraged to create moments where we can slow down and enjoy the great light of the season—or laugh at those unexpected moments created for us by faulty navigation systems.