When I was around ten or eleven years old, my mom was cruising in our sweet minivan through Atlanta traffic with us kids in tow.
One minute we are speeding along, changing lanes, 'bout to cross a bridge. Next moment, there's a wrench, an impact on our right side, a little behind where I was sitting in my uber safe booster seat. Whoops.
We pulled over on the side of a narrow bridge... a convenient location.
Turns out, a younger man in a small car had been passing us on the back right side when my mom began to change lanes. His side mirror was broken, and our beautiful Betsy was scraped up.
My mom had looked... but not seen. Betsy's mirrors just didn't cut it this time. He had been in our blindspot.
To end the story, we were rocked by closely passing rush hour traffic for an hour or two on our new favorite bridge. The police finally showed up at the engagement to file a report, and we rolled on home.
So, blindspots. We all have them, unfortunately.
Not just cars.
When you look over your life, when you slap down that measuring stick, you'll always be missing a problem, or maybe an approaching car.
Not to take the metaphor too far, but close friends who give accountability, advice, and prayer are kind of like the car passengers.
They have a different perspective than the driver's mirrors, and perhaps they can even see the oncoming danger. (But don't blame me. I was playing my Nintendo DS, I think. Just a kid anyway.)
As I get older, I have been made to see faults and harms that could wreck my soul and hurt my relationships that I was completely unaware of, from pride or perspective, I was blind. I am blind now.
Maybe that's the key. We can't see everything, and we aren't going to be perfect. But it is good to be aware that we have these blindspots and to seek to bring them to the light through friendship, through walking with God.
And He will give us grace when we wreck our minivans...
Happy trails!
