Ultimately, I passed the test

This is a bit of a personal event. It is in no way work related. I do feel that sometimes God put up barriers to see how we will respond. Do we respond in a way that pleases Him or do we please ourselves?

One morning I woke up late for work. This made me late for our weekly meeting and it threw off my entire day. I woke up late, that means a quick shower. I grabbed a quick cup of coffee as I ran out the door. Taking my normal path to work I found that the road was under construction. I turn to find a path around the construction zone. There, too, was more construction on my alternat path. Taking the detour because the road was blocked, I found another path to work. I used to live in this neighborhood so I knew it well. When I get to the next major street where I will need to decide to go north or south, there is more construction. I am forced back south to a busy artery. Merging back into traffic I sit and wait like everyone else during rush hour.

I turn the corner. I am finally on the last leg of my trip into the office. A drive that normally only takes me thirty minutes is dragger on closer to an hour. I am in the far-right lane as I intend to make a right turn soon. My frustration builds as I see a car stopped in the lane ahead of me. Snorting our a breath of exasperation and thinking what could go wrong next, I see a child pop its head up in the back seat. Now, rather than be exasperated, I change gears. This mother and her child are stalled in the right lane of a very busy road during rush hour traffic. Within a blink I made the decision to pull over and help. I pull into the parking lot. I approach the car and ask if she needs assistance. She states that her boyfriend is on the way. It is not safe for her and the baby to be stranded in the roadway so I explain that I am going to push her car into the parking lot. Put the car in neutral and I will push. As I walk to the back of the car I note the first person stop to help me. I quickly explain the situation and we push the car into the parking lot together. I wish her well as she points to a car pulling into the lot. That is her boyfriend.

I arrived late to work that day. I only told my boss that I overslept and traffic was bad. He understood and because this was not my normal, he said nothing more about it. Ultimately, I believe this was God’s lesson to me that morning. He put up the barriers so make sure that I remember what was important. I think ultimately I passed the test.