Drive Carefully

Where can I go from your Spirit?
Where can I flee from your presence?
If I go up to heave you are there;
if I make my bed in the depths you are there.
Psalm 139:7-8

Driving to work yesterday I received an interesting nudge from God.  The way I travel I drive down a road that has a twenty-five mile an hour speed limit. A little way down the road there is a field where police cars often park to, for lack of a better word, observe the traffic. Yesterday I was moving along just at the speed limit with the driver behind me just short of in my trunk. For quite a distance she was on top of me and suddenly she was a respectable car length or so behind. Are you ahead of me here? She slowed down inches before the field where the police sit to observe. 

Very quickly a thought flashed through my head. She obviously travels that way enough to know that in all likelihood a law enforcement officer is waiting right around the bend to enforce the law. With that knowledge in hand she slowed down. My guess is that on mornings when she does not have someone like me right in front of her she speeds her way to that point and then eeerrrrrrr slams on brakes to comply with the posted limit. Naughty, naughty girl. 

The whole thing made me laugh. I actually wanted to say out loud, “Yes Lord I do see the parallel.”  How many times have you heard someone say, “Don’t say that in church!” Or something like, “It’s Sunday. You can’t do that on a Sunday.”  If we’re in God’s house or it’s his day we have to behave, otherwise, apparently, he doesn’t pay any attention.

We all do it. While I may recognize the silly hypocrisy of the “don’t say that word in church” thing, I’m bothered much more by the idea of spending an hour or two of the morning in prayer and then an hour or two in the afternoon engaging in gossip or judgment. If I really believe and realize that God is always watching me then shouldn’t and wouldn’t my behavior reflect that?  I want my behavior to bring him glory after all.

My too close driver chose to obey the law only when there was a threat. She slowed down because someone was watching.  Did she not know that Someone is always watching? I know that I forget that sometimes.  I cut a corner or speak words I shouldn’t with no regard to the presence of the Holy Spirit dwelling in me.   

I was amused by the other driver’s effort to avert punishment but in her case she was able to pass by without incident. Those policemen are not omniscient.  They had no idea how either of us was driving before we entered their line of vision.  God knew. He also knew what both of us were thinking. A fact of which I was very aware as my amusement threatened to turn the corner to judgment.

God is watching over us. He watches out for us. He sees us always, all ways. If you are driving your proverbial car into someone else’s trunk, you might want to slow it down.  God isn’t waiting around the curb. He’s riding right along.