Passengers

 "The path I have been led down Is part of Gods plan for me; this path is not something to be endured until I reach His plan. This is His plan."

"He delivered the Israelites out of Egypt but they still had to cross the Red Sea and wander in the wilderness and starve and be bitten by serpents and wonder if they would ever enter the Promised Land."

This morning, on the way home from church, Peanut and I got behind this car.

On the back windshield it said something like "Going slowly my baby boy just had head surgery."

So I may have ugly cried at the red light by the Walmart.

For this Mama who has endured more than she should have to ever carry.

And for the community we live in where you need to write "Give me grace for my burdens" on our cars in order for people to gift us a little room to navigate our own journey.

Why is it we feel what we WANT is more imperative than what others need?

Maybe it's just because the last 4 years I've been intermittently riding with teenage drivers, but I've definitely noticed our community has little respect for traffic laws and even less for new drivers.

I think we are all teen drivers in some area of our life.

Navigating a new and overwhelming task, with large responsibilities and potential consequences, without the grace of those around us.

People are honking and yelling because we are walking the journey differently than they are. Different than they think we should.

We aren't a community that assumes the other person is doing the best with the knowledge they've been given.

Driving slowly with the six month old baby who has had head surgery because they've been told to be extra careful.

Multiple times lately my readings have taken me back into the desert.

With the wanderers.

We all want to be out of Egypt but we don't want to endure the travel.

Mama Warriors, we are the cusp of another school year. For those following, the COVID numbers are on the rise again with the Delta variant hitting our area.

For a moment before you honk your horn or make that ugly comment, remember the baby that had head surgery who without that sign, you wouldn't have known they were in the car. Maybe when you ordinarily would have had ugly things to say about their slow speed or passed them unsafely in a turn lane, now you know to gift them space.

Maybe the person who you engage a mask conversation with has lost a relative. Or a close friend. Or both.

Or maybe like someone we met recently, he and his wife both battled in the hospital. He came home and she didn't.

Maybe you don't go to bed each night praying for someone else's kid who doesn't have a mama here. But we do in our house.

Let's give each other the benefit of the doubt that we are making the best decisions given what's riding in our own car.

And embrace the idea that perhaps if your passengers were different, you might walk something differently regardless of what the controversial issue it is.

Let's love God and love people.