A Driving Lesson?

 

I’ve written about how bad the potholes are in the roads in our Michigan area.  I could write a book on how cautious you must be, sometimes even going “the long way” to avoid some of the worst streets.  We had our usual Bible Study this morning, and the house where we meet at is on a dirt road.  I had to creep along in some of the worst sections to get there.  Today I noticed that some roads have had road barriers or orange cones put up to highlight the gigantic potholes.  Avoiding potholes, avoiding barriers, avoiding on-coming traffic when you suddenly have to swerve, and staring at the road and yet being aware of the overhead traffic signals so you don’t run the red, are all new lessons in driving during a Michigan winter. 

This morning the Bible Study group began using Fr. Bartunek’s book Seeking First the Kingdom (which I wrote a review on).  Chapter one, titled “How Much is Up to Me?” notes how God is in the world and our lives, and how the acts of creation and all the other things God sets in motion are huge things compared to our little participation in them.  He says God does 99%, and we do 1%, but our 1% is critical.  Bartunek uses the example of what God does to grow of crops and animals, but we actually bring them together and cook them to make a meal.  We only did 1%, but without our 1% something wonderful would not have happened.  Pope Benedict XVI said “Act as if everything depended on you, knowing that in reality everything depends on God.”  In effect, God makes things possible; we make them happen. 

Or not.  Although unsaid in the book at this point, this is where the freedom God gave us enters the equation.

The aim of Fr. Bartunek’s book is to show you how to love God, with all your heart, soul, mind and strength.  There are 4 discussion questions at the end of each short chapter, which we used in today’s Bible Study.  At the end of chapter 1 the questions basically asked how we are meshing our 1% with the 99% God makes available to us, or how we are growing in love of God?  And at the end of the last question is a proposed resolution for us to change: “What will you do to keep your life in better harmony with God?”  It most fitting that Lent starts tomorrow, although these resolutions proposed here are not meant to be temporary resolutions for Lent, but life-changing resolutions. My resolution was to try to see what God sees in a person or situation in front of me, trying to see how much He loves, even if my initial reaction is not one of love.  I will try to speak to God when I feel a negative emotion with the prayer--- “What are You seeing here, Lord?  How can You love this?  How can I?” 

This is my resolution for week one.

After the Bible Study, I headed out into the pothole circus and to church for a noon mass.  As I drove, I noticed (again) how it seems that every time there is a huge pothole coming up, there is also a car coming up in the oncoming lane, so I don’t have much room to swerve to void the pothole, especially when the oncoming car is riding the yellow line.  One time I noticed a bicyclist riding on my side of the road, who I had to avoid (even more so than a pothole) --- but couldn’t swerve into the oncoming lane because of the one car coming at me, timed perfectly.  So, I had to drive between the oncoming car and the bicyclist at the same time, squeezing through without hitting either.  When I finally got to the church, I turned into the parking lot --- but was stopped by a traffic cop who was letting the many school kids cross the road, to also go to mass.   I waited, watching the long line of kids, and my watch.

It wasn’t until I was on my way home that my brain meshed all those events of the morning.  I thought how critical our 1% was to God’s helping us do something major, like our growing in holiness.  That was my resolve from the Bible Study: especially if I am having a negative reaction, I would try to talk to God, to understand His viewpoint.  And then on the way to church were the on-coming cars that coincidently were there when I needed to swerve in that lane (but remember how I don’t believe in coincidences?), and then the timing of the oncoming car with my passing of a bicyclist and I had to avoid both. I don’t believe that was a coincidence either.  I had put the cyclist’s life at risk, and I still didn’t get it.  Then I finally got stopped by the kids.  I flat out couldn’t do what I wanted to do.   Few years back I saw how God seemed to put roadblocks to my plans when He wanted me to stop and perhaps do something else.  Today it was the kids crossing that made me think God was trying to tell me something.  Thinking back on my negative feelings about all those things that happened while I was driving, I now finally did what I had resolved to do at the Bible Study, and I asked God what He was trying to teach me when I had those negative feelings.  And I perceived that He told me: “Teach?  No, just remind you what you already know:  There are only two commandments, love God and love neighbor.” 

And when I had those negative reactions while driving, was I doing either commandment?  No, I was prioritizing what I wanted: to go where I wanted, to go as fast as I wanted.  Rather than squeezing near the oncoming traffic or even risk hitting a human being riding a bicycle, is there is something else I could have done?  Yes, I could have slowed down or even stopped, to avoid hurting my neighbor.  That didn’t come naturally for me to do that, but if I want to grow some in holiness, it hopefully will in the future.  This world is full of those who don’t focus on either of God’s commandments to love, but only focus on themselves.  I don’t want to be like that.

Is that a driving lesson?  No, I think it is a living lesson.  Loving God and neighbor means I am not first.  They are.  And I need to make that how I live, naturally. 

This was chapter 1 of Bartunek’s book.  I’m almost afraid to read the rest.