Posts Tagged: gratitude for bad thing that don’t happen

“ON LEFT TURNS, OBEYING THE LAW, JUDGMENTALISM, AND OTHER MATTERS

On September 5, 2017 by Dteb With 0 Comments - down to earth believer

I was on my way to meet a friend.  He usually drives to our twelve-step meeting.  It helps me to save money.

However, there is left turn signal on the way to where we meet that makes eternity entirely believable.  Only when someone pulls up on one of the side streets will the red light for the main road be triggered.  And only after traffic on the side streets has done its thing will my left turn signal be activated.  You can sit there a long time early on a Saturday morning before you can make a left turn.  Furthermore, you can see about a quarter of a mile down the road from the light.  If there is any traffic coming your way on the main road, you can certainly see it.

So, this past Saturday I was running late (as is often the case).  I thought of turning left at the red light, since no one was coming.  I’ve done so before.  However, I decided to be a law-abiding citizen this time.

Just after this decision, an SUV came speeding around me, crossed the double yellow line and went into the left lane of traffic coming toward me, and turned left on a red left-turn light.  Despite the fact that I had just about done a similar thing—perhaps even because of that fact—I could feel judgmentalism welling up inside of me.  I became aware of the judgmental feelings, confessed my sin to God, and continued to wait for my light to change.  Eventually, someone pulled up on one of the side roads, which triggered the cycle, and I turned.

It hit me only later: If I had been in the act of turning when the other vehicle came screaming around me, I would have almost certainly been hit.  Such a hit on the driver’s side of a small car could easily have been fatal.  And, of course, the police would have cited both the other driver and me, since we were both doing something illegal—provided, that is, that I was still alive to be cited.

I don’t know if I came up with this myself, but I have often thought that, whenever something bad happens, there are almost always at least two mistakes.  If there is only one mistake, bad things generally don’t happen, because someone covers for the one who makes a the wrong choice.  (Of course, there are exceptions, as there almost always are to nearly all generalizations.)

My feelings now changed from irritation at long lights and judgmentalism against the other driver (who had done what I wanted to do) to relief and gratitude that I was alive and that neither I nor my car, nor the other driver’s vehicle were banged up.

P.S.  I arrived at our meeting place a minute before my ride got there.

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