SHI#&@^J666CK!!!!
Recently I scraped the underside of my bumper on some hidden parking lot curb.
“SHI#&@^J666CK!!!!” I yelled. I was instantaneously enraged and afraid.
Unfortunately, I also wasn’t alone. I’d instantly forgotten my daughter was there. Parenting fail.
I read if you wanted to create outbursts of rage, you couldn’t orchestrate a better environment than driving. The driver is isolated. It’s hard to see other drivers as people. Driving is inherently dangerous. We’re moving huge piles of metal around fast. Any moment can be our last.
Driving is orchestrated for someone to cut us off and drive us nuts. Decades ago, I was in a car with a driver who was cut-off. He chased the other driver down and punched him in the face.
To be a peaceful driver is to resist a violent environment.
What are our environments like? The pattern of our days? The layout of our homes? The dynamics of our relationships? Are they orchestrated to help us become more fully Christian, more whole as human beings? Or, do they help do the opposite?
In Luke 24 we get The Emmaus Story. Two broken-hearted disciples are met on the road of life by the Risen Jesus. Christ shares the story of God with them. They break bread together in a home. Hearts are warmed and eyes opened. The disciples rush out renewed by incredible good news.
This is a story about Jesus, but it’s also about worship and life.
We journey through life, sometimes in sadness, and there Jesus meets us, even if we don’t at first recognize him. We share words and food, and he is there with us, leading us. He gives us new ways to share his hope.
All life becomes orchestrated to connect us to Christ, if we allow it to be so.