I remember a scene from an old movie, the title of that movie, story line and characters I can’t remember, but that one particular scene is so clear to memory that the words enacted have stayed with me throughout time. Although the words from that scene are not verbatim, their meaning are quite clear and their impact continue in my life. The scene was of a man telling the person standing before him to take a coin and hold it in front of his face and then asking that person what they saw. Undecidedly the person answered with the most obvious response, it was a coin that they saw. The man then instructed that person to hold the coin out at arm’s length, again posing the question, what do you see? This time without the focus being primarily on the coin, the person saw various things throughout the room, a chair, a window and its view beyond. The point being, when that person’s focus was only on money, money was all that he’d see.
Much similar to when our focus is primarily on our problem, the problem is all that we’ll see. Such was the day when I saw God dancing in the middle of traffic. Yes, you read that right, I saw God dancing in the middle of traffic. Allow me to explain . . .
It was one of those days when life threw an unexpected obstacle in front of me. I was never one to be late to anything, especially to my nephew’s ball games. In fact, I prided myself on my ability to always being on time and that particular day was supposed to be no different. Even though I’d left my house a few minutes later than I normally did for my nephew’s ball game, I knew I still had plenty of time to find a great parking spot and watch his game from the comfort of my car.
Whenever the weather was on the cooler side, I preferred sitting in my car at his games. Unfortunately, I wasn’t the only person who preferred doing that, and so with limited parking around the ball field, I knew that I needed to be at his game at least an hour early. Otherwise, I’d be forced to sit on the bleachers, wrapped in a blanket, concentrating more on how cold I was than the game itself. But not to worry, I would still be there extra early, and knew without a doubt, I’d get a great spot at the ballpark and be able to watch my nephew’s game from the warmth of my car.
With my radio on and my hand tapping the steering wheel in rhythm with the music, not more than three minutes into my drive, I noticed an unusual number of cars slowing down in front of me. Now when you live in a rural area like I do, seeing a few cars spread out over a few miles of road is normal, but what I was seeing in front of me was anything, but normal. There had to be at least ten or more cars in front of me. Brake lights flashing on and off, as drivers in front of me prepared to stop for what appeared to be construction on the road. I tried not to feel flustered, as I found my car at a dead standstill. The rhythmic tapping on my steering wheel became a pounding of fingers as I waited for traffic to move. Not only were we not moving, but there were no cars coming from the opposite direction, which could only mean one thing; both lanes of traffic were stopped and I was trapped in the middle with nowhere to get out.
I felt panic rising up in my chest as I looked at the time on my clock. Five minutes, turned into ten minutes. I was past being flustered. Why wasn’t traffic moving? Why hadn’t there been construction signs alerting me to take an alternative route? Why, why why???
I tried desperately not to look again at the clock on my dashboard, knowing that seeing proof of my lateness would only increase my frustration. Old Satan himself seemed to be whispering to my thoughts, “Yep, you’re going to be late, you’ll have to sit on the bleachers and freeze.”
With a scowl on my face and noticing that fifteen minutes had gone by, I screamed inside my car, as others in front of me, and behind me, started beeping their horns. Their horn beeping wasn’t accomplishing anything, just as my scream hadn’t. Screaming hadn’t even made me feel better. If anything, I was angrier to the point of wanting to get out of my car, and confront the person responsible for making me late. Knowing that would be futile, I accepted my fate of being late for my nephew’s ballgame as I stared numbly ahead, focusing on nothing, but the problem I saw. It was hopeless, there was nothing I could do, but wait.
Finally, just when I’d accepted my fate, cars from the opposite lane started driving past me. I of course, averted the eyes of passing drivers, certain I’d see smugness on their faces for being selected to proceed first, while I sat with the immobile losers. My focus was on my problem . . .
And then it finally happened, cars in front of me began moving. With tension on my face, enough to crack my teeth, I was ready to give the dirtiest look that I could muster, to the people responsible for making me late to my nephew’s game.
With frown in place, and an intended “if looks could kill” on my face, I was ready to give that construction crew, a visual piece of my mind. However, to my utmost surprise, it wasn’t a construction worker that I was seeing before me, it was God Himself.
Now, one might imagine God in a flowing white gown, with a circle of light all around Him, but that wasn’t the case. He was in the form of a dancing construction man, waving at passing cars, spinning in circles, with a sincere smile upon his face. An infectious one at that, causing the scowl on my own to disappear and the tension, that I’d felt so intensely, to fade. And just as easy as that, the frustration was gone and instead of the “killer look” that I’d planned, I found myself waving, as I drove past that dancing construction man. My focus was no longer on being late, but instead focusing on the construction worker as he spun in circles, before bowing to my wave.
Ouch! I certainly didn’t deserve the kindness I was being shown. After all, I’d been angry just seconds before, misguided anger at a construction worker simply doing his job. Of course he was doing so much more than that, he was spreading joy, and it was infectious because I soon found myself giddy, as the smile on my face turned to laughter. Yes, without a doubt, in the midst of delayed and angry drivers, I saw God that day and for His presence, I was very much thankful.
As it turned out, I still found a great parking spot at my nephew’s game, and as I sat in the warmth of my car, I couldn’t help, but smile from the memory of that dancing construction worker. Knowing that I’d been graced by the presence of God (whether or not I deserved it.)
From that traffic jam, came a valuable lesson, trusting God, means trusting Him with my problems, even something as trivial as a traffic jam. I had a choice that day to react with a scowl on my face or to metaphorically dance in circles, bringing joy to others as that worker had done for me. I could only ask God for forgiveness for not doing a better job at representing Him as the Christian that I am and then thank Him for the forgiveness that He gave me.
We all get tired, we all falter and it’s a humbling thing to realize that God is always present, even when we don’t look for Him, and whether or not we’re sitting in the warmth of our car, or wrapped up in a blanket, sitting in the bleachers at a ball game, God is there . . . even in a traffic jam, ready to remove the scowl from our face and turn it into a smile . . .