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Roundabouts

Moving to Long Island, NY from Charlotte, TN has been a culture shock to say the least.  The landscape, culture, and customs are very different.  One of the biggest differences is the driving.  Going anywhere in your vehicle in NY requires aggressiveness, fearlessness, and finesse.  NY drivers have no patience for hesitation, or courtesy for the most part.  Don’t even think about stopping and letting someone out in front of you.  
In the NY street system, a common site is the roundabout.  The only one that I know of in the Nashville area is the one on Music Square that goes around the naked statue.   Since they are prevalent where we now live, I’ve had to learn how to navigate them.  The principle of how they work sounds great.  Instead of having to stop for a light or sign, the traffic keeps moving to the right in a circular fashion until the driver gets to the street they want to exit on to.  They are designed to keep the traffic moving.  All this depends on the drivers understanding the rules, which frequently does not happen.  Some of them even have two lanes in the circle.  I’ve been the recipient of horn blowing, cussing, and hand gestures while navigating these tangles of moving traffic.  If you’re not in the correct lane you can get caught in a continued circle and completely miss the street you had desired to exit on.
How like those roundabouts our lives can become!  With the best of intentions we try and navigate the demands of our lives.  We try in vain to fit “it” all in.  Work, church, family, hobbies, and keeping up all our stuff all demand a piece of our time.  Somehow, maybe we don’t even notice when, we find ourselves on the roundabout of life going round and round.  We know we need to exit to the destination God wants for us, but getting off seems impossible.  It’s like we’re stuck in that inside lane and can’t quite make it off.  We know something needs to change.  We yearn for it to be different.  Peace, joy, simplicity, “being still” all seem to be impossible to attain.  Meanwhile God watches and shakes his head.  “Just get off”,  “just take the next exit”, He says, and He waits. 
God’s Word is abundant with promises of peace, joy, freedom from worry, anxiety and guilt, and the ability to lay down our burdens.  He asks us to give all this to him and live in freedom letting him do the navigating.  Yet for some reason, or reasons, we keep on doggedly insisting on doing the driving.  All the while we pull an ever increasingly loaded trailer of regrets, guilt, frustration, and pain.  Our desire to “get it right” to be self sufficient, strong, and successful keeps our foot on the gas.  How unnecessary!
At this point in my life I am finally learning to “leave the driving” to the King of Kings.  It’s been a long time coming.  I highly recommend it!  There is such freedom in giving up the wheel.  The creator of the universe is highly capable.  Peace, joy, contentment, and freedom await us.  So slow down, get in the outside lane, and take the first exit off.  
“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.  Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart and you will find rest for your souls.  For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”  Matthew 11:28-30

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