I was sitting down one day, reading the driver’s handbook, when all of a sudden, a voice inside my head asked me, "Isn’t it amazing how much driving resembles life?" At first I ignored the voice, but the more I tried to concentrate on the page I was reading, the more I kept thinking about the voice in my head. I closed the book, leaned back, and allowed my mind to ponder the question...How does driving resemble life?
Well, let’s see... The car you are driving is your life, and you are responsible for its maintenance and safety. Other cars on the road are other people--enemies, friends, neighbours and family, for example. When driving, as in life, anything can happen. You can cut people off, get in an accident, get lost, make wrong turns, get a flat tire, whatever.
That’s when I started thinking about ways that would prevent people from getting lost, injured or killed on the road of life. It did not take long until I realized that if we really searched our "cars’" interiors and the scenery outside our windows, we would find these precious guides that can save us from our own careless driving.
To keep us from getting lost, let’s look at the road map on the passenger’s seat next to the driver. This road map would be God the Father and His Word, the Bible, because it tells us which direction to go and which roads to take and avoid, in order for us to get to our desired destination safely.
If we look out the car window, we’ll see numerous signs (arrows, stop and yield signs, speed limit signs, etc.) and stop lights controlling the flow of traffic and the way we drive. These extremely helpful signs--great gifts from our Father--would represent the Holy Spirit, because it keeps us from getting way ahead of ourselves and colliding with other vehicles. The Holy Spirit, in the form of road signs, advises us when to yield or stop for others and when to slow down and drive with caution. It is extremely obvious that we must pay attention to the Holy Spirit because the guidance and protection it gives is priceless and unique.
Let’s take one more look at our car’s interior. See where the airbags and seatbelts are? Those two life-saving features would be none other than our ever-forgiving Saviour and King, Jesus Christ. Jesus knew that all of us would eventually die a horrible, unnecessary death because we were too intoxicated by our self-consumed sins to notice fatal on-coming obstacles. That is why He was eager to become our airbag and our seatbelt, so that He could save us from ourselves. He willingly placed Himself between us and the desolate abyss of death, quietly suffering from the painful and fatal impact of a car crash He was not even responsible for. He did all that for us, so that through Him, we would all be securely sheltered from harm’s way and would therefore be saved.
After a second or two of mindlessly staring at the front cover of the driver’s handbook, another wonderful thought occurred to me: Why bother driving the car yourself when you can have someone else drive it for you? I mean, if you are such a clumsy and absent-minded driver, wouldn’t it be better and more practical to wholeheartedly entrust your life to someone wiser, stronger and more trustworthy and powerful than you will ever be? And who could possibly fit that seemingly unbelievable and unattainable description? Well, look around your car’s interior again and pay particular attention to the airbags, seatbelts and road map. If you really rely on those safety features to get you where you want to go safely, then you’ll realize that it is not you driving your car anymore. You can finally sit back, relax and enjoy your journey down the road of life, because God--your Father, and Jesus Christ--your Saviour are driving for you now, and there is no need to worry anymore.
I still do not know how to drive a real car, but I learned that by relinquishing control of myself and yielding to Jesus, I don’t have to worry about failing the ultimate driving test on the road of life.
-KAREN ESPIRITU