If you come to Colorado and decide to drive in the mountains, please remember to drive on the right and pass on the left. This keeps traffic flowing smoothly and decreases the opportunities for collisions. Furthermore, be very certain that you don’t drive the same speed in the left lane as an adjacent car in the right lane!! This whole thing is a really big pet peeve to me, full stop. I’m all the more cranky about it because heaps of people have moved into Colorado within the last two decades and this basic principle of driving has seemingly been lost on these new arrivals. You can probably read that I have intense feelings about this.
In the grand scheme of things, whatever lane a person drives in shouldn’t get me screwed into the roof. To this end, I work to coach my mental game so that I can be a gracious driver, mostly. My reason for writing about this is to help us think about what gets us riled up and ask the question: Are such things really all that important in the big picture? So let’s pause for a moment and think about some of our possible trigger points.
Do you get angry when a person is on their phone and oblivious to their surroundings, like in the grocery store, on mass transit, in a car at a stop light, working out at the gym, in the library, etc.? Does it grate on your nerves when someone interrupts you or tries to finish your sentences? Do you get cranky with a person in the express checkout line at the grocery store who has heaps more items than the posted maximum? What are some things in your life that are like nails on a chalkboard, so to speak?
As we think about what ticks us off, let’s contrast these things with stuff that is drastically more important. For example, I was helping a friend with some cooking in her kitchen and I messed up. When I apologized, she replied, “Not a big deal. We aren’t saving lives here, sweet pea.”
So what could be some truly important and even essential things for those of us who follow Jesus? When we look at His teachings and values, He distilled everything down to love. Consider His words in John 13:34-35, “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.”
When I consider that love is the central principle for following Jesus and I put that value in front of the stuff that ticks me off, then I can experience some helpful recalibration. When I let love be my lens, this helps me to do better at seeing a person whom Jesus loves more than the stupid things they might be doing.
Let’s also take this a step further and remember that Jesus loves us every day and every minute, even when we don’t particularly like ourselves or when we do dumb stuff. Let’s remember to let the little stuff stay little and keep the main things as our core values: loving Jesus, loving people and loving ourselves!
