Illustration: “Road Rage” By Dan Betzer
It happened just a couple of blocks from my study yesterday afternoon; it was about 4 o’clock with rush hour traffic. Iti our burgeoning county, it sometimes seems like every car on earth is in my lane. A young fellow kept weaving in and out of traffic, cutting people off, cursing them. Finally he had to stop as cars were waiting for a light to change. The fellow behind him got out of his car, walked to the driver’s door, pushed the muzzle of a gun through the window and shot the driver in the head.
Headlines this morning shouted "Road Rage!" Now two questions pop into my mind immediately: 1) why would a driver act so foolishly? Turns out he’d been arrested umpteen times for drugs, booze, and driving without a license. So apparently it was his modus operandi behind the wheel. And 2) Why would that upset some other driver so much he’d spend the rest of his life in the slammer just for the act of killing the immature driver? My goodness, the rest of his life behind bars just for venting steam during one short moment of life.
Are you in control of your emotions? Are you easily enraged? God deals with those chinks in our armor through the fruit of the Holy Spirit such as patience, and goodness, and love. Sure better than guns! (From ByLine email, March 30, 2005)