Driving Without Hitting Stuff

Would you agree that there’s more to good driving than “not running into stuff”?

As a kid I developed the really bad driving habit of staring at oncoming traffic. Makes sense, right? Oncoming traffic is the biggest danger, so why wouldn’t you watch it carefully?

The problem, of course, is that you tend to steer in the direction you’re looking. The best strategy is to focus your attention in the direction you want to travel.

There’s more to good driving than “not hitting stuff.”

I think it’s a principle that goes beyond driving.

Doing life right is more than not doing it wrong. When you concentrate on what you fear, what you want to avoid, you actually gravitate toward it.

Jesus talked a lot about light. He wanted us to steer toward the light instead of becoming preoccupied with avoiding darkness. He laid out a few principles for doing life right rather than a million rules about not doing it wrong.

If you focus on removing darkness you’ll always fail, because the only way to remove darkness is to introduce light.

When light shows up darkness automatically retreats. That’s why it’s more productive to begin new habits than break old ones. It’s simply easier and more helpful to add positives to life than to spend enormous effort removing negatives.

I think the lesson, the principle, is that we ought to fill our lives with light and reflect that into the world as much as possible. And we ought to question those who continually try to re-focus our attention on darkness and fear. That’s not Jesus’ message.

If you’re re-orienting yourself as you move into 2015, how about joining me in steering toward something positive instead of giving up or stopping something negative.

As an example, when I struggle I want to step back and look big-picture and long-term. I believe I’ll view things a bit more from God’s perspective and perhaps prioritize my time a bit differently.

Note that I’m not thinking about the negatives I want to stop doing, things like fussing about stuff that doesn’t matter. Those will fade away as perspective and priorities change.

How about you? What’s the light toward which you want to steer in 2015?

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