rubber-neckers

Have you ever found yourself driving down the highway, everything is moving well and all of a sudden bam, you come to a dead stop and your stuck in a traffic jam. For the next 1/2 hour you inch forward, bumper to bumper and finally come up to the cause of the slow down. Why its some dude with a flat tire and Bob the tow-truck guy has stopped with his hazard lights a flashing... and for some reason all the other drivers felt compelled to hammer on the brakes so they could turn their heads to watch this road-side scene. No lanes are blocked, the road is clear, there is no reason for the highway to be backed up for miles, but it is, thanks to the rubber-neckers. And sometimes this causes a real accident, somebody crashes into the car in front that had to slam on the brakes because the rubber-necker ahead had to slow down to look at whatever... they drive me nuts! Now for the life analogy (I can find a metaphor in anything, I thought of this today actually while stuck in traffic). Sometimes there are traffic jams in our life's journey too. Sometimes we get too caught up in the things happening around us, that really aren't blocking any lanes but we stop and look anyway. We get distracted and sidetracked from our goal, from the path that God has chosen for us, from the direction we find from the Bible. The thing is when while we are rubber-necking and looking sideways we can cause mayhem behind us. The people around us, our friends and family get caught up in the traffic jam too and sometimes there is an accident and a relationship is damaged. Stay focused on what is important, stay focused on what God has called you to be, focused on your family, focus on being kind to those around you... and don't' rubber-neck! peace, m.