Who’s Driving?

I’m not the best driver in the world. My husband will attest to that. In fact, despite never having so much as gotten pulled over before, my husband is wary of my driving. He loves to not have to drive, but finds great comfort in knowing that little handle is available for him to keep a steady, firm grip of whenever I’m in the drivers seat. I’ve had my license for a while now and aside from a few small bushes and trees, I’ve never run into anything, either. I consider myself to be very cautious and careful when I sit behind the wheel, especially now that my boys ride with me almost everywhere I go.

Last week, I had my first wreck.

Now, it wasn’t actually my fault. My parents, Jonah and I were on our way home from picking up some last minute birthday gifts for Noah. We were crossing one of the many, many bridges here in the Cape Fear River area of North Carolina during pre-rush hour traffic. The truck in front of me was without break lights and I had to slow down and come to a complete stop pretty abruptly. Unfortunately for my care the poor girl behind me didn’t have the same luck. She smashed into us going a little slower than the speed limit, but still hard enough to damage both vehicles and give us a pretty good jolt. Thankfully (Praise the Lord!) no one was hurt in either vehicle and we were able to get everything taken care of in a somewhat swift manner.

I went down the list of how inconvenient the wreck was and how it threw a damper in my weekend. I was planning a birthday party for my (now) six year old that next day. We were on our way to pick up cupcakes. My parents were up from Alabama visiting us for the first time since we moved here in June. The list of “man, this sucks because…” reasons was quickly gathering momentum in my mind.  But, As we sat on the side of the bridge waiting to be told where to go by the Highway Patrolmen, I couldn’t help but realize just how fortunate we were:

• Firstly, no one was injured.
• No airbags were deployed.
• At the speed we were hit, we could have easily been turned around into oncoming traffic…which would have created a direct side impact on my baby boy.
• Or, if we’d been hit at a different angle pushed over the bridge into the river below (which makes for a LOT of scary situations considering my dad can’t swim and Jonah was strapped in a carseat)
• The girl who hit us is a High School Student at the same school my son attends
• They were a family of very strong Christian Faith

That simple realization that things could be so, so much worse made me sing my praises to the Lord that things WERE “as bad” as they were.

I often wonder, who do we let drive our lives? Better yet, WHAT do we let control/drive our lives?

Is it money? Success? Assurance from others? Pride? Sin?

Or is it Jesus Christ? The one who is ultimately in sole control of everything anyway?

I struggle with relinquishing that control on a daily basis. Despite knowing better and having SEEN His will come to pass in my life in so many more ways than one, I fight against it. I fight against Him and His Almighty supremacy.

That wreck on the bridge could have, and probably should have, been a lot worse. And in all actuality so could many life circumstances.

Next time you start to question the “why’s” of the day stop and ask yourself Who is driving? Who is in control? Because when you stop to acknowledge and recognize that the God of the Universe is guiding your life and has a hand in every single situation in your life-whether big or small-you start to realize that the things that seem like a big deal, really aren’t.