Mixed Signals

Take a trip with me....

It's sunny, you've got your sunglasses on, the top is down on your black shiny BMW, you don't have a care in the world. Leeland is blaring from the radio. You feel so cool. Maybe too cool because when someone who is actually going the speed limit gets in your way, it frustrates you to no end. Your blood pressure begins to rise. You begin to tell them to move, in a Christian loving kind of way, even though they can't hear a single word you're saying. After about 10 minutes of this, when you think you can't take another moment, they put their blinker on to make a left hand turn. You're thrilled to finally be getting rid of them, to continue your trip and return to your world or music and a warm breeze blowing through your hair. They slow down. You slow down. Blink, blink, blink. There's no traffic coming in the opposite direction. Yeah, the moment has arrived. As against the law as it is, you being to go around them to the right, that's when it happens. BAMMMM! They aggressively turn the wheel, making a right turn...into your front bumper. You get out of your car and you're screaming at them. You've totally lost your cool. "But you had your left blinker on!!!" Before you stands an older gentleman, obviously scared and upset. Your behavior just makes him even more nervous. He begins to cry. That's when you return to your car to get your information. In your excited state, you never lowered the radio down. That's when you hear it. Tears of the Saints.

Suddenly, I feel convicted. My heart aches with pain, shame and embarrassment. My most recent behaviors have not been those of a Christian. The Saints are crying out with pain. This truly is an emergency.

Ironically, a situation similar in nature happened to me only a few years ago. I had bent down to pick up a water bottle that had fallen out of the car upon opening up that rear passenger's door. Upon my up righting myself, an elderly woman caught a glimpse of my white t-shirt in the dark of the night and swerved. Thank God she did. She barely missed me and clipped the door of my mother's Ford Explorer truck bending it like a tin can. My first instinct was to yell, no scream at her. She was shaking more than I was. I think I was in a bit of shock at how close I had just come to death. She could not stop apologizing and began to cry. That was when it happened, I found myself comforting her. God had convicted me on the spot. The pain my reaction had caused was uncalled for. I thank God for that moment and am grateful for His on the spot aching of my heart to turn my mixed signals instantaneously into His work.

Our God is awesome and on this Easter season, I ask you, are you sending mixed signals or walking boldly in His love?