The Lines Are Your Friends!

While driving to work this morning, I was wondering how is it that so many cars can be moving at such high speeds within inches of each other and not collide? As it turns out, there are two types of lines in play here. First and most obvious are the lines on the highway that mark the lanes. Whatever lane you find yourself in, you know that you must be cautious when changing lanes. In my experience, it is often better to just stay in the lane I am in rather than try to achieve some advantage by switching to another lane.

The second less obvious lines are those lines that I will call self-interest. It is in your best interest not to collide with the other cars around you. You might get hurt or you might harm someone else. Then you have to deal with the "hassle" of attending to someone's pain, yours or the other person's.

In our Christian singleness journey, we must remember that the lines are our friends. We have the Holy Spirit that lets us know which lane we are in and how to proceed cautiously if we need to switch lanes. We have also been blessed with the gift of self-interest. But self-interest can be a mixed blessing, not because that is how God intended it. Rather, the lack of clarity of self-interest lies in our misuing it. Sometimes we elevate our self-interest over the interests of others. Spiritually based self-interest looks at the needs of the community and not at just the needs of the individual. It is not what works for ME, but what works for US. The abuse of self-interest leads us to break our romantic partner's heart, lie about and to our friends, backstab those who are close to us and not help others when they are in need. Christian singles ought to be better than that.

Stay in the lines! The lines are your friends! Let the Holy Spirit guide you and be sure to adopt a posture of spiritually based self-interest. It is better to get where you are going safely than cross the lines and collide with other people because that could lead to a little something that people have labeled ROAD RAGE.