Left turns. What a hassle!
When driving a car, it is so much easier to make a right turn than it is a left one. Even if the stoplight is red, we can legally turn right (in most places) as long as the traffic in our intended lane is clear. Not a great deal of thought or decisiveness is required for a right turn really. When the coast is clear, you just turn right and you are on your merry way.
Oh, but a left turn! A left turn requires a bit of patience. The left turn requires more attention and carefulness. The left turn requires us to have a keen awareness…to look to our left, right, and sometimes in front of us before making our move. Left turns can make your head spin, figuratively speaking of course.
My son Caleb has just recently received his driving permit, and I must confess I have been somewhat nervous about our new driver in the home. He is doing very well as a beginner I am happy to say, and my new favorite song as a result of being a passenger to a teenager is “Jesus Take the Wheel”. (That’s a little “teen driver humor” for all you parents out there that know exactly what I am talking about!)
With Caleb starting to drive now, I must say that I do get nervous about him making those intimidating left turns. The left turns require a heightened sense of anticipation and judgment. First, you have to get the right timing to get into that left turning lane on a 4-lane highway, sometimes carefully crossing a couple of lanes to get there. When you do get into the turning lane, knowing when to “squeeze the lemon” and push through that left turn yellow light when the traffic flow is uncertain can be a challenge, especially for the beginning motorist. To top it all off, the oncoming traffic can be turning right while you are turning left (ultimately placing them into your lane), turning left (placing them close to your turning path) or coming straight (for which you have to wait until they have passed before turning). Left turns can be downright nerve-wracking. But, as a young motorist, I have to allow Caleb into those “left turn” situations, as a learning experience.
Think about it for a second. If we take right turns only every time that we drive, in theory we end up going in a “square circle”, never going anywhere. You’d see the same scenery over and over. You would memorize every landmark, road sign, and road kill (sorry…bad visual there) along the way. In fact, you would make no forward progress at all. What a boring journey it would be!
So what could be so important about a discussion of right and left turns? What's the big deal? Well, sometimes for convenience sake, we rely mostly on the “right turns” in life. We know our circle of family and friends and are comfortable in that comfort zone. I am certainly guilty, as are many of us. But in taking the easy and familiar route, we miss out on so many things that God has planned for us. The soul needing healing is often at the end of the left turn. That coworker that is dealing with the loss of a family member travels beside the road encountered just after that left turn. The individual longing for acceptance and friendship can often be found by refusing the right turn in favor of the left. The opportunities that we encounter are more often than not found along the path of greater resistance (left turns), when we step outside of our own little world and into another’s.
Life’s “left turns” are not always convenient, comforting, or easy. It takes faith, and faith in a nutshell is stepping out into nothing and finding something there. God wants us to take the sometimes difficult left turns in life so that we don't miss out on His plan for us, opportunities that would never be available with a right turn. Many of Gods most rewarding opportunities along our life’s journey are not along the path of least resistance, but along the path of greatest sacrifice.
Don’t skip life’s left turns. God may have something big in store just around the bend!
