Seven Ways Life is Like Traffic - Part One of Three

I remember times in my life when I was very anxious and very unsure of what the future held for me; as a student, as a young minister and as a man desiring to have a family. I remember thinking to myself would I ever get to where I wanted to be in life? It seemed like everyone was always flying past me. I felt that way at school most of the time. Sometimes it would seem like I was doing great and as soon as I started making gains, I would slide back. Sometimes circumstances beyond my control would play a part. Ultimately, I knew I wasn’t where I wanted to be in life, and where I wanted to be was so far away that it became overwhelming. 

I wanted to write something that I hoped to be encouraging to someone in similar situations. I’m on the other side of those things now, in this stage of my life. I am now middle aged, a Pastor for 23 years, married for 25 years and my children are grown. In retrospect, looking back I often wonder why I was so anxious and I feel the effects of some of that anxiety that I’ve faced over the years. 

As I was in my car riding to work I was meditating on this and I started to look at my surroundings for inspiration. I then realized that life is a lot like traffic. In my comparison, I found all of the elements that you need in life in my analysis of traffic: boundaries, speed limits, straightaways and curves, backroads and shortcuts, landmarks and interesting places, patience for the journey, and of course various types of signs.  In an uncanny yet vivid way, all of these elements of traffic mimic life for me. 

1.    Boundaries

Consider boundaries – they are your friends. It’s the white line on the outside of the lane that lets you know you’re almost on the shoulder of the highway.  Similarly, the yellow double or dotted line in the center of the highway lets you know you may be crossing into someone else’s lane and potentially putting yourself and others in danger. In life, even though each of us have God-given gifts and talents, we still have boundaries.  You can always sharpen those gifts but some things are just given to you naturally. Your area of gift sets is accompanied by boundaries.  These elements work together and are instrumental in showing you where you would be optimal in life. When you step outside of that lane you are really beginning to stretch yourself. You want to make sure you can center yourself and work within your boundaries. Therein you will have the best chances of reaching your destination with the least amount of harm. 

2. Speed Limits 

There are other factors to consider in your lane. The speed limits which are there are not to harm you but to help you.  They exist to make sure you’re not driving at a speed at which you would lose control or otherwise potentially harm yourself. Thinking of this reminds me of times in my life when an adult, be it a parent, teacher, coach or relative who cared enough, would tell me to slow down. You’re going to get there, they would say, just slow down. Their well-meant advice only seemed to stir my anxiety. They were not looking at the time I felt I had already wasted, nor were they seeing where I thought I should be by now.  Sometimes the anxiety that you face is because you realize how much time you’ve wasted and now you’re trying to catch up.

In the haze of my anxiety, there have been times when I’ve hopped in my car and tried to speed to my destination.  It never fails on days like this, you get behind someone doing the speed limit and you’re banging your steering wheel wondering why everyone else is driving so slow! The truth is, everyone else isn’t driving slow, they are able to drive the speed limit because they left on time. Honestly, most of the time the issue is we don’t want to take responsibility for starting late. Just as we have to acknowledge the speed limit on the highway, we must move with God’s timing in life rather than recklessly meandering off course without his guidance – lest we pay the price for it later in life.