There are few things in life as aggravating as being in bumper to bumper traffic with no foreseeable end in sight. Now, I'm not typically the most patient person when it comes to driving and my tendency is to simply listen to music and drown out everything else. Let me tell you though, lately, the Lord has been using my time in the car to reveal a new depth to looking at setbacks.
There I was driving along Houston's beloved 610 loop (Shout out to anyone who has to ride this during your commute, and may God pour out blessing on you because shoot it's the worst) when up ahead of me swam a sea of red brake lights.
The sight of brake lights is pretty common on this roadway, however, it was a bit different this time because the brake lights didn't seem to end. Literally. It took me about half an hour to pass maybe a quarter mile stretch.
In this time I decided to try something different. Instead of listening to music or a podcast I just let my mind think. I filtered between praying and thinking and tried to draw myself away from the frustration which so easily wells up when I'm caught in traffic.
Instead of focusing on the traffic and how I was inconvenienced I focused on what I could do in that time. Now driving doesn't yield the most freedom of movement or action, but it does allow a great space for prayer because you are forced away from other distractions. While I was praying I had a revelation.
We set time standards on the pathways we take in life. We know how long it should take us to get from point A to point B. When our drive takes longer than usual, we become frustrated. The same goes for our lives. We have a plan or a rough idea of how long ideally it'll take us to do something, whether that be graduate, get a job, or get into a relationship.
Whatever it may be, in life we set timestamps for how long we think things should take. We have our ideas and our plans set out based on roads we've taken in the past or based on what roads others have taken look like. A lot of frustration arises when things don't happen according to "plan."
At least for me, I've been frustrated lately by the fact that I may have to go a semester longer before I can graduate due to transferring universities. I've been super upset by the whole process and that frustration is definitely still not totally gone. But at that moment sitting on 610, God revealed a little bit to me.
He revealed his heart by showing me that even if I think I know how long it should take to get from point A to point B, sometimes life is going to throw some traffic amid that plan. We have two options when faced with the traffic, we can either become frustrated, anxious, or angry, or we can choose to seek peace and calmness.
I don't want to be someone who gets incredibly worked up by traffic, I want to find peace amid the traffic even if it's not ideal. It's a process and I know there's still a good way to go but I hope that next time you're in traffic you can take a deep breath and know that even if there's setbacks, you'll get to your destination at some point even if it's a bit later than you'd have liked.
