The Passenger Seat

Most of the time when I am in an automobile, I am the driver.

But, every now and then I am in the passenger seat and someone else is driving.

This is not normally my first choice….

I like to drive…. I feel more in control… I trust myself

Just this week I found myself riding as a passenger.

There are many things that happen when you are a passenger.

For one thing you are not in control…. You have placed your life in someone else’s hands.

I think it would be interesting to video record the actions and motions passengers sometimes go through..

You might see them stomping down on an imaginary brake peddle…

Or even see them stomp down on the gas peddle.

You might see their head swivel from side to side as they check out other vehicles around them

It might be even more interesting if the thoughts of the passenger could be recorded….

My, wouldn’t that be something! Maybe a little like the Mel Gibson movie, What Women Want.

Most times the passenger is silent… but what if those thoughts were verbalized? What if you could somehow hear what the passenger was thinking?

But there are times when keeping silent is impossible

We may find ourselves giving instructions….

Or telling the driver what we would do if we were driving.

We are a passenger because there is somewhere we need to go…

But sometimes as a passenger we find ourselves going where we do not want to go.

The driver might say, “do you mind if I stop over here for just a moment?”

Or the driver might say “I need to go by such and such a place first”

Many times what we say in such a case and what we are thinking are not the same.

Sometimes we are in a hurry to get somewhere….

We need to go faster….

We may feel we know a better route to take…

But we are the passenger… we have lost a certain amount of control..

Sometimes we get nervous…..

Sometimes we get afraid…..

Sometimes we just get flat out irritated.

Ever rode with someone and it seemed like they hit every pot hole in the rode?

You might have even told them to go back… there was one they missed!

Riding with someone else can be an experience

In many situations it boils down to the fact we just don’t trust the driver!

I had a grandmother that was one of the most praying women I had ever been around..

This was especially true when she was in the car riding with someone she did not fully trust or have complete confidence in as a good driver.

She would hold on to the door handle and just say over and over…. Jesus, Jesus, Jesus.

The story is told of two men that went to Heaven.

One was a preacher… the other was a taxi driver.

When they got to Heaven St Peter met them at the gate.

He spoke to the taxi driver first and welcomed him…

He told him there was a mansion prepared for him with the best furnishing available and a Roles Royce to drive.

Next St. Peter welcomed the preacher….

He told him he had a nice house that had many conveniences in it and a new Chevy to drive.

The preacher said, wait a minute….

The taxi driver gets a mansion and a top of the line Cadallac… I get a regular house and a Chevy… WHY?

St. Peter said, “because when you preached every one slept”.

“But when the taxi driver drove everyone prayed!”

>>>Many times being a passenger is not fun….

>>>You may not be sure of the driver’s ability…

>>>It can boil down to just a lack of trust and not being in control, not being able to do it your way.

LIFE ITSELF CAN BE THAT WAY—

There are times when we find ourselves traveling along as a passenger… not the driver.

Our walk with God is much like that…

We find ourselves in a situation where we are not in control

We are in the passenger seat… God is driving…

>>At first this seemed to be OK…

But as we travel along we find ourselves getting nervous

There are pot holes in the rode…. It seems like God is hitting every one of them. We are getting jarred… that is not a comfortable feeling.

Maybe we feel we need to go faster than God is traveling…

Or sometimes we just don’t like the way He is driving…

We hit the brakes when He stomps on the gas…

We have our hand on the door handle ready to jump out.

Our neck is sore from twisting from side to side trying to see what is coming.