'words' part 5 // Backseat Driver {guest post by Lucia}

Backseat driver. You know what those are, right? Yeah. The annoying (and most often license-less) personage who is best known for phrases such as, “go!” “turn!” “hurry up!” and  “STOP!”

All from the backseat of the car, a good six feet from the wheel.  

Never been guilty? Think again.

Sometimes, life feels exactly like New York City in the middle of rush hour. Everyone rushing this way and that, horns honking impatiently at me as I lumber along, lost and bewildered and just wanting to get home. I'm hustled and jostled along with a sea of frenzied traffic, and then--all of a sudden, just as I thought I was getting somewhere, life comes to a halt like a red light blocking my path.

Sigh.  Why does life always do that? Deceive us and disappoint us, I mean? And why are people always honking their horns at me when they can see I’m just as stuck as they are? And where did I take a wrong turn? And why am I here when I’m supposed to be…there?

Wait. Hit pause. Um, okay, that’s easy to do—I'm not going anywhere right now, anyways.

Something tells me that I'm forgetting the true purpose of my time here, on this earth, in my little corner of the universe.  I have been so busy trying to read the map myself and pretend I know exactly where I’m going that I’ve begun to miss the whole point of this road trip called life. And guess what, Lucia: it’s because you were never  intended to be the driver in the first place.

Uh-oh. Here stands a backseat driver, guilty as charged. And I had pledged never to be one.

Friends, life is short. You know that, and I know that, but just the same, we take it for granted. And we make mistakes. Why? Because we try to drive ourselves through the maze of people and places and feelings and heartaches and heartbreaks, not knowing what we’re doing and becoming just as dangerous as a four-year-old driving a pickup truck.  The halt in life that we merely passed off as a “red light” is really us overturned in a ditch.

        So? What now?

Simple. We can sit in the car with the airbags in our face, screaming and squirming and trying to figure out how we'll get out alive this time, or we can be still and know that He is God. We can put the mangled wheel in His hands, and let Him lift us free.  

Jesus, drive this car, because I’m going nowhere without You. This backseat driver just let go of the wheel. 

Lucia is a small-town Northwest girl with a passion for writing, Jesus, and photography. She blogs at Lucia, Etc., where she strives to encourage and entertain through many photos, ramblings, and the occasional "deep thought."