Christy, drive here

With the exception of the whole stick shift thing, learning to drive in Africa hasn’t been too hard. I thought the whole left-side-of-the-road thing would be tough. But I started on the 3rd day here and got the hang of it pretty quickly.
One thing that helps is the road signs, - big round blue signs with arrows that point to the left, as if to say, “Christy, go here” Perhaps the Swazi have had too many Americans trying to drive on the wrong side so they designed them for their own safety. I don’t know.
But it’s helpful when you approach an intersection, and everything is confusing. The green arrows are flashing the other direction, and you wait for oncoming traffic to clear before turning right, or you try turning left on red into the inside lane; It’s just nice to be pointed in the right direction,-and by “right” I mean left. :0)
Another thing that is helpful, although it might seem strange, it to have someone else on the road as a reference point. If a car is approaching you in the other lane, you can keep to your side and know you are correct.
Well, a few weeks ago, I had dropped Queeneth off at our Ngwane Park care point and was attempting to find my way back to pick her up. I made it all the way to the bottom of the hill before I realized I’d missed my turn.
Sigh.
I turned my truck around on the empty hill and started back up, looking off to the side to find the street.
Clutch. Shift. 1st gear. Gas.
putputput.
“Where is that road?”
Clutch. Shift. 2nd gear. Gas.
Putputput.
“It should be here. I have to find that red thingy. Yes, we turned at the red thingy.”
I was concentrating so hard on the shifting, and clutching, and where to go, it took me a good long while before I realized I was driving on the right side of the road!
“Oh crap!” I shouted as I swerved back to the left side. “Phew, that was lucky!” Good thing no one was around.
But the Lord spoke to me very clearly in that situation.
“Do you see what happened? You weren’t looking for direction, or reference points, and you went very quickly back to what was comfortable, familiar, and easy. You went to what you were use to.”
Yikes! How true.
It made me think about when I read through the old testament, and time after time, when the people didn’t have a strong judge or king for leadership, the Bible says, “and each person did as they saw fit,” or “each person lived as they thought was right.”
If we, as people, aren’t intentionally looking to God to be led, for direction, or reference points on which way we should go, we all fall back into what is familiar, comfortable, or easy.
Sometimes, it makes no difference. Like that day I drove up on the wrong side of the hill,- No harm, no foul. But it’s easy to see if I had continued to do it for long, I’d get myself into a real mess.
God’s guidelines are for our own protection, and well being.
I encourage you to look for those big blue arrows!