While traveling, I enjoy the beauty of nature and the sunrise/sunset through a windshield, it is almost blissful to me. The trip always starts with me being prepared: potty, gas, fluid check, tires, playlist, sweet tea and sunflower seeds…good to go. I’m driving along enjoying Third Day, sipping on a peace tea and taking in the amazing views. A few dozen miles in a bug hits the windshield, dodge a few tire chunks and I am making good time. I few hundred miles later the bugs are really adding up and I am running on fumes and the tea needs to find a new home. I find a safe looking place that has the cheapest gas and whoop in. Tires look fine, fluids should be fine, gas is full, bladder is empty and time to roll.
It is getting late now and the sun is setting. The glare is brightly beaming in my windshield and the bugs have made a permanent resting place with my glass. I can hardly see as I slouch down in my seat to find that opening between the dragon fly and pair of love bugs and I make the decision to push the washer fluid button on the column…instantly I am blind and driving 70 mph. I hold the button down and swish, swish, smear…a gallon later and the mess on my windshield is so bad I am now driving by braille.
The sun is now going to bed for the night and the cruise control is off because I can’t see and my seat has permanent grip marks in it now from the near accident I had trying to dodge the large truck tire in the middle of the road. My stomach is in knots, I’m stressed to the max, tunes are off and I just want to get where I am going and be done with this flipping trip…
This day just as many other days started out great with a majestic view of the sunrise, and I appreciate and marvel at the beauty of nature but as the bugs pilled on the windshield and the stress set in, the beauty and majesty of the sunset was lost in the circumstances. I have been driving for almost 30 years and after all this time you would think I would have learned to simply pull over and clean the windshield but it seems I either forget or just don’t feel like it.
Life is similar in so many ways. One constant we all share is life is going to throw bugs on our windshield, problems are going to come and it is going to get messy. Some can’t take it and do the unthinkable, some turn to substances, some sex and some just sink into a shell of seclusion (this guy). During these messy times it is easy to get into trouble or fall into the pits along the way but another constant during these travels of life is the beauty and majesty we once appreciated is still there and never changing, what changes is us and how we view it through our windshield. The life cleaner is God but He never makes us pull over and use the power He gives freely via the Holy Spirit, instead He leaves that resource up to us to tap into and sadly most of us reserve it until we can’t see past the pain or trouble we wake up into. The bugs are coming and life is going to get messy, it is up to us to pull over and allow God to change our perspective. The trip goes so much smoother that way and instead of looking forward to it just being over we can appreciate the beauty on the way.
For the Spirit God gave us does not make us timid, but gives us power, love and self-discipline. -2 Timothy 1:7
“The more we get what we now call ‘ourselves’ out of the way and let Him take us over, the more truly ourselves we become.” -Mere Christianity