“Put it in neutral”

by TerryLema

Our Jeep is getting a bit old and has a lot of miles, coming from years of 60-mile-round-trips between work and home and trips like this last one to California. The Jeep’s transmission has been overheating. The shop tells us “nothing to worry about. Just put it in neutral for two minutes until the warning light goes off and you can keep on going.” Really? Just put it in neutral? Well, if we don’t put it in neutral, it will put itself in neutral. It will slow down until it comes to a complete stop no matter how much gas it’s getting.

Sounds simple enough, put it in neutral.  Simple unless you are climbing up to Donner Summit, or in the middle of four lanes of traffic flying along a section of road with no shoulders. We were lucky this trip, it only happened twice on a portion of Highway 80 that had wide shoulders.  We put it in neutral and in two minutes it was cooled and ready to go again.

I’m chuckling this morning because not only did we need to put the Jeep in neutral on this trip, I needed to put me in neutral to cool down a few times. I’m usually pretty good with traffic but this trip really riled me up. I don’t know if it was the heat, the smoke from all the fires, the abundant traffic jams, the crazy drivers or if I was just tired from adjusting to a full-time work schedule. The one thing that was evident was the absence of my usual good cheer and patience!

My anger, of course, accomplished nothing except to make me miserable. No matter how I seethed inside, it remained hot and smoky, the traffic jams still delayed us, the crazy drivers still drove crazy and I was even more tired from all the energy expended with the anger. My anger sure did not reflect our God.

Multiple times in the Old Testament our God is described as slow to anger. “The LORD, the LORD, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness.”  [Ex 34:6-7 NIV]

Father, I should have heeded the Spirit’s warning that the way I was acting was not honoring You.  Forgive me. Create in me a heart that is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness.  Amen.

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