A Different Kind of Driving Lesson

I was driving to Asheville, North Carolina yesterday. I had a group of kids with me, and this has become my life. At any rate, as we were nearing the end of the trip, a guy started flashing his lights at me.

Now light flashing at a driver is much like trying to communicate with someone who is deaf or just doesn't speak your language. You attempt to use a series of crazy gestures in the hopes that it all pans out. Charades is the closest situation I've ever had to it, and that's really not all that close. The reality, though, is I could only learn from this driver that he was somehow disappointed in what I was doing, but I had no idea what he wanted.

As I made the rotation of things I knew to check with the hope that I'd figure it out, I was at a loss. That prompted the only girl in the group (I guess we can count on the women to be more observant) to point out that he probably wanted me to turn on my headlights. I obliged, which led the group to rightfully mock me.

As I became interrogated by high school students wanting to know why I thought I was above the law requiring a car in the evening hours to use lighting, I began to make some argument about how the very nature of car lights, much like other lights, was not to be noticed, but rather to illuminate the road ahead. Ergo, if I was seeing fine from the well lit streets and seeing well enough, I must have not needed them.

I also had some remembrances of my son "teaching" me about why race cars do not need headlights while watching Cars the movie. And I think that it really is true that all vehicles which are only on designated areas really don't have or need headlights.

While I really was making the argument in jest, I couldn't help but think about our call as Christans is to be the light of the world. Our job is to shine that light in such a way that when others see us, they glorify God. I really think our very purpose is to point people back to Him. Light, itself, is not the point, meaning that we are not the point.

So this whole logic forced me to introspectively ask if the headlights of my life were on. I want to be a driver who is alert enough to point people back to God on every occasion. I don't want to rely on the lights of others to be enough that my witness is seen, but I want to shine as a light in the world. And that is the lesson I learned when taking a group of high school students to a Bible Quiz in Asheville, North Carolina!