Why Are You Mad?

You know the yellow lines that are painted in road ways that make a median? Well these are called a painted traffic island or a flush median. These are not travel lanes and in most states they are illegal to drive in. If you didn’t know, now you do.

I tell you this so you can paint this picture in your mind. I was on a side road turning left. There was a line of traffic and it was looking like I was going to be stuck here for a bit. Well somebody being nice stopped and waved me out. As I was turning out someone zipped around the stopped cars into this traffic island in an effort to turn left on the adjacent road to me. The driver and I met at this point where if we hadn’t been paying attention they would have hit me on the drivers side. When they saw me they slammed on their brakes and I could see the frustration in them. I thought, “Why are you mad, you’re the one breaking the law.”

This caused a thought to rise up within me. Why are you mad? Why do you pull up to a red light and get mad because it takes 30 seconds to change? Why do you get mad at the person in front of you because they’re obeying the law and driving the speed limit? Why do you get mad because you’re trying to pull into a lane, somebody else has the right-of-way, and they’re simply doing what they’re legally supposed to do?

Why are you mad? What’s going on in your life that’s got you that angry? Why are you in such a hurry? Is it more important that we get there fast, or that we get there safely? Is it more important that we get where we’re going quickly, or that we’re kind to the people we meet along the way?

Because sometimes I think we’ve gotten in such a hurry that anybody who slows us down becomes our enemy. A red light isn’t doing anything to you. The person driving the speed limit isn’t doing anything to you. The person who has the right-of-way isn’t doing anything to you.

Maybe the problem isn’t the traffic. Maybe we need to slow down. We need to be more concerned about being safe than being fast, and more concerned about being kind than being mad.

So the next time you feel yourself getting angry because somebody cost you 30 seconds, ask yourself a question:

Why am I this mad?

 James 1:19–20 (KJV) 

Wherefore, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath: For the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God.