Not more than a few miles from our home we have a railroad crossing complete with flashers and gates. It isn’t a main thoroughfare but gets used often as a way to get to one side of the closest town more easily.

At present it is a very rough crossing and needs work for the deep ruts that are on more than one side of the rails. The speed limit on the street is 45 mph but when you come to the crossing you not only need to slow down, but also somehow almost travel at 5 mph to avoid destroying your car. One glitch that happens is that some drivers will not stay in their own lane to do that and go racing around others who are and then speed up the slight incline after the railroad tracks that has a double yellow line marked squarely in the center.

In so many ways and areas it seems we are prone to move into someone else’s lane. We are impatient and believe our lane is the way everyone should be going and going at the same rate of speed no matter what parameters are laid out.

Our tolerance or respect for others seems to get eroded more each passing day and one byproduct is how it shifts our focus from the lane we are in, the one that the Lord often placed us in, and we then wander into someone else’s lane. When that happens, we can start from a position that says through statements, actions, or innuendos that our path, our lanes is the best way for you to go as well.

Our pride shows, but much like a slip that others see is showing, we often miss it in ourselves. We offer unasked for advice. We give opinions presented as facts and fail to see what scripture points out:

³ “Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? ⁴ How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? ⁵ You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.”

Matthew 7:3-5 (NIV)

Sadly, we all need to plead guilty as charged on this if we are brutally honest. None of us see ourselves as accurately as we may think, and the enemy of our souls would have it so. That way we can subtly be used by him in ways we miss, be a part of sowing division between us and others and erode even the best of relationships.

Have we forgotten that Paul says we “see through a glass darkly?”

We sit chatting over coffee with someone and often fail to listen well to hear not only the words and the heart of the other person, but also the context that is key to understanding what is being said. Then to complicate things, we respond at times and get “in the other person’s lane” without recognizing the path the Lord may have placed that person on.

Jesus reminded Peter about needing to stay in his own lane in a very direct way:

“Jesus answered, “If I want him to remain alive until I return, what is that to you? You must follow me.”

John 21:22 (NIV)

Ouch!

We get focused on how someone else is driving, talking, opining, and miss that our focus needs to be staying in our own lane and following the Lord on the path He has laid out before us. Each of us will intersect with many other people in our lives and many different paths as well, but each of us has our own path, our own lane, our own race, and our own mission to complement each other in the whole of God’s kingdom.

In a recent reading of The Sacred Echo by Margaret Feinberg, she wrote about grappling with the words spoken by Jesus in John and sensed the Lord’s voice:

“You follow me.

Stop being distracted by the people in the lanes next to you. They have their lanes and you have yours. Keep your eyes focused on me, for only then can I open your eyes to things that you cannot see otherwise.”

Margaret Feinberg in The Sacred Echo

Wise counsel indeed that gets reinforced in another quote from Margaret’s book:

“Don’t worry about the speed, productivity, or efficiency of others. Don’t be concerned with people who look like they’re running in circles. Stay the course. They have their lane and you have yours. You need to follow me.”

Margaret Feinberg in The Sacred Echo

To stay in our own lane requires that we press in closer to the Lord with our ears attuned to his quietest whisper. It’s that simple and yet so challenging to stay there.

As 2020 inches closer to its end many are hoping a new year will bring us a “more normal” life again. No matter who we are or where we live. whether we experienced the virus creating the pandemic or lived in its shadow, all of us have been touched by it in some way. Article after article has spoken about the fear that has wrapped around our minds and hearts as a result and for that we long for relief.

But it hasn’t just been the pandemic or its shadow haunting our steps and decisions, all the other things life can throw at us still happened – financial challenges, accidents, unexpected health problems, academic challenges, family estrangement, and the list could go on much longer.

The result has been a marked awareness of feeling vulnerable. Vulnerability is something we all live with, but when life is fairly “normal” we don’t think much about it.

Vulnerability is defined as “the quality or state if being exposed to the possibility of being attacked or harmed, either physically or emotionally.”

Maybe the challenge we face is that we forget that we live with vulnerability ALL the time to varying degrees, but when a major event occurs and it spikes on top of that fear or anxiety gets added and we can feel overwhelmed, uncertain of how to feel safer again. We don’t like to feel weakened in any way, but we often find scripture that reminds us the Lord knows well that we will do so.

“My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.”

Psalm 73:26 (NIV)

“He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak.”

Isaiah 40;29 (NIV)

Consider that humankind has experienced vulnerability to disease and all manner of evil since the fall of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden for their lack of obedience. It wasn’t supposed to be this way for God’s creation.

And we have a problem when and if we recognize evil exists in the world. We either ignore it and give it no credit or we cower in its presence.

“We underestimate God and we overestimate evil. We don’t see what God is doing and conclude that he is doing nothing. We see everything that evil is doing and think it is in control of everyone.”

Eugene Peterson in Run With the Horses

If we are to live in this world as fallible, vulnerable, often frail humans, it will be necessary to live with the truth that we cannot control most of the things that come at us from all directions. We do have a champion to be with us and watch over us and walk through this life, but it will require us doing what C. S. Lewis has said – turning our whole self to Him – and knowing He is good.

God’s goodness does not mean we will be spared these things that come at us, but that He will never leave us. If we are his, we are often reminded by scripture and sermons that we live on this earth as “resident aliens” who reside at a particular place on this planet while knowing that our real home is another kingdom.

Jesus reminded his disciples of that before He was crucified and ascended into heaven. See how his disciple, John, records his words:

 “I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”

John 16;33 (NIV)

Scripture tells us that as the time for Christ’s return draws nearer, evil will grow and things will appear dark indeed, but until then his light shines in us and we are to be resident aliens keenly aware of our purposes and calling.

“Be very careful, then, how you live—not as unwise but as wise,  making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil.”

Ephesians 5:15-16 (NIV)

Eugene Peterson puts forth the challenge this way:

“For if we are going to live in God’s image, alive to all that is God, open and responsive to all he is doing, we must trust in his word, trust what we do not see. And if we are going to live in the world, attentive to each particularity, loving it through all the bad times without being repelled by it or afraid of it or conformed to it, we are going to have to face its immense evil, but know at the same time that it is limited and controlled evil.”

From Run With the Horse

And that is not control through the fragility of humankind, but limited and controlled by the One who created all of us and the world we live in. We must also grapple with the reality that we cannot wholly rid the world of evil or make people good by doing so. Only God is good and to the degree that we allow Him to govern our lives, his goodness can shine through us.

For those who yield themselves to the evil that opposes God, he rules over them and release can only come by turning to God for his transformation and deliverance. He is the only One capable of changing the inner heart of any man or woman.

In the midst of our vulnerability and uncertainty about what tomorrow holds or even the rest of today, God says “I am here, and I am enough.” And as we feel alone in the midst, He reminds us that He will never leave us or forsake us. And when we grow weary of what shadows us and would seek to have us fall prey to despair, He says “I am with you to the end.”