How’s Your Fuse?

It was just after 630 in the evening and I was driving to church to teach a Tuesday evening class. As I approached an intersection, a white vehicle blows around a red vehicle and crosses the intersection without stopping at the stop sign. The red vehicle then accelerates and passes the white one on a hill and then promptly slams on brakes.

Of course, by now I am just coasting down the road and being super mindful of what is going on. As the red vehicle goes over the hill, the white one makes a hard left and u-turns and almost blows my doors off going past me the opposite direction. As I crest the hill, I see the red vehicle fish tailing straight towards me in my lane. I hit the brakes and he was able to correct before blowing past me towards the white one.

What in the world?!?! What caused these men to take a 2.5+ ton weapon and swing it around carelessly? What set them off? Was one guy going too slow for the other or not responding quick enough in the intersection? Or was there something deeper – a fight that started earlier in the day, a girlfriend that has been going out on the other? Regardless, was that craziness worth whatever the “issue” that prompted it?

Then, I thought about some of my own reactions to things. I might not be doing a 180 in the middle of the street but how often do I get frustrated because I have to wait an extra 30 seconds or even 5 minutes? Or when people don’t know how to drive as well as me (at least in my opinion), do I turn to others or even myself and complain? Seriously, what good does that do?

As I saw it, these guys must have short fuses…may I work on having a longer fuse and practice the fruit of the Spirit, peace, patience, kindness. How about you? What makes your fuse go off? Do you need a longer one?