Grace Community Christian Church

 

Archived Things Above

Road Closed (8/28/09)

So I'm driving Bus #470 east on Patrick Street. I turn right on Pennsylvania Avenue, and I'm supposed to go two blocks down and pick up some kids. But there's a ROAD CLOSED sign in the middle of the street, and a bunch of kids waiting for me. As I stop to pick them up, I'm thinking to myself, "That road is passable! It's still early in the day, they haven't really started working on it. I think I can go down there, play dumb if I get yelled at, & stay on route."

See, if I have to detour, then I have to wrestle through all sorts of mental gymnastics to figure out how to get back on route, which is critically important because the bus routes are designed as much as possible to pick students up door-side, so they don't have to cross the street.

Now, my wife would have had a completely different response to the ROAD CLOSED sign. She would have immediately jumped to Plan B Mode. It would never have occurred to her to even think about driving past that sign. She was raised to respect authority, and for her, that sign would have been all the authority she needed to change direction.

But I have Char-Char's genes coursing through my blood. Char-Char was my dad's mom (her name was Charlotte but we never called her that, ever. Nor did we ever call her Granny or Grandma. It was always, Char-Char.) When my grandfather died in 1977, Char-Char came to live with us in Bucks County, PA. One day, after a particularly heavy rain, she was heading up Route 32, the River Road, which runs alongside the Delaware River. She came upon a ROAD CLOSED sign, and proceeded to maneuver around it to her destination. A few minutes later her car, a yellow Mercury Monarch, was stalled out in several feet of water. The river had flooded, and Char-Char had to be rescued with a tow truck. When asked why she drove around the sign, she simply replied, "I didn't think it applied to me." (BTW, her car was henceforth dubbed The Yellow Submarine!)

So I'm staring at this ROAD CLOSED sign, and all I hear in my mind is Char-Char's voice: "It isn't meant for you, Jim dear. Just drive past it!" Meanwhile, a dozen kids are wondering why their bus driver is just sitting there going nowhere! Finally I decided to disappoint Char-Char, suppress my own innate carnal rebelliousness, and ask for help.

"Has this road been closed for a few days?"
"Yes!" they all shout in unison.
"Is everyone from the other end of the street on the bus now?"
"Yes, we're all here! We walk down!"
Then, the all important question:
"Does anyone know how I get to the next stop?"

That's where John comes in. Sitting right behind me, this big, soft spoken black kid (who reminded me of JC from the movie, The Green Mile), became my navigator. Very politely and accurately, he steered me through the rest of the route, which was a huge help.

The whole experience left me wondering, What is it about ROAD CLOSED signs that make me want to drive by them? That make me determined to prove that the rules don't apply to me? That make me think I'm above suffering the consequences?

Well, I already know the answer to that question, and so do you. It's called Sin. Oh, it has a few other names: Ego. Arrogance. Pride. Self-will. Stupidity. Foolishness. Rebellion. Defiance. Just to name a few. But Sin covers them all. And the Bible is clear on the subject: There's something in the moral DNA of every human being that insists on driving past the ROAD CLOSED signs that God has erected in this world. We thumb our noses and take our chances, and inevitably, somewhere down the road, we find ourselves at a standstill, in need of a spiritual AAA.

What I did right this morning? For a change, I asked someone who knew more than me if there was a better way, and then I listened to him. That's a good way to run a bus route, and a good way to run a life.


Jim Dewar --