Merging Traffic

About fifteen years ago, I realized the break down of society was in the fact that many don’t know how to merge in traffic. This is an abstract statement representing the fact that we no longer know how to live in community. Obviously, this is a generalization. I am sure you know how to live in community. I am sure I always hit it on the bull’s eye when it comes to living among the human race.

Okay, I don’t always get it right and in case you didn’t smell the sarcasm, let me be the first to break it to you. You don’t get it right all the time either. And at the risk of sounding really old, I think our ability to live in community is getting weaker.

It does not even take an hour of reading the paper (scanning the internet) to realize how broken we are at living in the same space. We can point to commercialism, guns, social media or even the church as the guilty parties in this breakdown. And possibly they are all correct. However, I think we have forgotten how to let another person in line in front of us. I think it starts there and then it grows to become something that just is down right scary.

The internet tells me of a shooting on the floor of a hospital where I have spent a few nights. Someone is trampled at Walmart over a sale item. I know this gives ammunition to have tighter regulations on guns and to cancel Black Friday (Thursday). I am not arguing for or against those recommendations. I am pleading the case that it is bigger than those culprits. The net needs to be a little wider if we really want to make this world a better place.

Do I know what the net is or the fix-all or the answer? I wish. Because if I did, I would write a book, be on Ellen and become some guru that only goes by my first name and living in isolation. After a few years I would realize the irony of understanding the key to living in community and living in isolation and probably write another book.

In all seriousness, possibly the book has already been written. There are some wise words in Scripture that refer to merging in traffic…I mean living in community. However, a lot of those words have to do with looking out for others instead of ourselves. And most of us are not sure that is a line we want to buy into long term.

But what would it look like if everyone thought and acted on that concept first? 

I think traffic might go a little smoother.