Last night was a fun night for me. I got to go see one of my favorite bands, Third Day, perform along with two other acts. It was music bliss for me. However, my moment of music nirvana was almost erased by what occurred on my way to the concert.
There were two car loads of us heading up for the concert, men in the van ahead of my vehicle full of women. I was enjoying the conversation and trying to keep pace with Andy so that we could all go into the concert together. As we were approaching the city, there was much construction going on, with ramps merging, exits closing, and hundreds of those orange barrels warning drivers of changes. With eyes fixed on the van, I'm keeping close... too close. At the last second, Andy whips the van into the left lane. I try to follow suit only to see the striped orange barrel in my way like a linebacker planted on the line not ready to let anyone pass. To over correct would have been disasterous, so I did the only thing I could... I clipped that puppy at 50 MPH. Yep, hit it, knocking my mirror into the passenger window and scaring everyone in the car. As we recovered, I witness the heads of several men in the van snapping around to see what happened. Instantly, I was embarrassed because I figured they were going to give me MUCH grief about my driving. However, I knew that I was following too close and not paying attention to the cautions that rose up all around me. I knew that hitting that barrel wasn't Andy's fault, but mine.
This incident got me to thinking about the dangers of following another person too closely in life. Just as I had my eyes fixed on following Andy, all too often in life I have found myself with my eyes on another person to lead me, instead of having my eyes fixed on the Lord. I've followed a pastor too close, placing unrealistic expectations on a mere man, only to be sorely disappointed when he didn't live up to the level that I felt he should. I've followed a boss too close, placing my life in someone's hands that didn't have God anywhere in his vision. I've wrongly followed a few men over the years that I thought would be that leader in my life, only to find that he didn't know where he was going either. Looking back, each of those scenarios had tons of warnings and orange barrels scattered around them, warning me to be cautious and wise. Yet, I've clipped one too many barrels in those situations, putting dings and dents in my armor, all because I took my eyes off the True Leader.
It also made me think about my role as a leader/mentor in others lives. Because of Jesus being who He is in my life, my mind was functioning correctly and got ahold of my mouth and I was able to admit my mistake to the women in my car and not blame Andy. This was a priceless teachable moment to Princess S sitting in the back seat. She witnessed an adult owning up to being wrong to others. (Of course, being the 15 year old expert driver, she did point out the fact that I wasn't following the 2 second rule... then I had to humble my self again and admit I didn't have a clue about the 2 second rule... but I digress....) I've also thought about the others in my life who may be following me a little too closely. I want to be a good example with my life, but I want that example to always point them to Jesus. That's where any success in my life lies... in who He is in me. Oh Father, help me to never allow anyone to think I have it all together, of my own ability.
Now the rest of the story... as we drove the remaining blocks to the concert, I will admit that I threatened to hit whichever guy was first to comment (hey, I told you I don't have it together!) only to be humbled by the fact that they really didn't (ok, they either got it all out of their systems before they got out of the van, or I need to seriously give my brothers more credit!!) and we got a good chuckle out of the whole event. Surprisingly, there was NO damage to my car, but God gave me a great lesson in the process.
I Peter 2:21
For even hereunto were ye called: because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that ye should follow his steps
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