God’s stoplight
It all happened one sunny day on my drive home when I was talking with God about how I was feeling stuck. I felt like I had hit a wall in some areas of my life that I felt He wasn’t done with yet. I had done all that I knew to do. I had prayed about it, I had asked for prayer from others about it, and I had asked God what He said about it; but I still felt like someone had hit the brakes and I was at a standstill.
So, here I was driving along, and I had turned off my radio to get nice and quiet with God and really hear from Him. When the thoughts, questions and concerns started rolling out. Sounding a lot like, “What did I do wrong God? Did I get ahead of you? Was I acting outside of your will? Am I being punished? Like what happened? Why in the world did I suddenly just hit a wall?” When all those thoughts were going through my mind was when I looked up and noticed the traffic piling up in front of me. I slammed on my brakes and came to a screeching halt. I am talking about the kind of stop where; my cell phone flew out of the cup holder and landed on the floor, my water bottle tipped over and leaked on the seat and my chap stick and gum somehow hit the windshield and the reminiscences were scattered all around. There was a mess everywhere.
As I am sitting there gathering my surroundings I blurted out, “What in the world is going on?” My initial reaction was anger. What the heck are they doing up there? Don’t they know it’s the middle of rush hour? Why would they do this to me? They are going to get someone hurt. You see, the road I was on is a very busy, very large road. It was a divided highway with four lanes of traffic going in both directions. So, to say I wasn’t entirely expecting to come up on a pile of cars stopped in the middle of the highway, is an understatement.
I am now creeping along in my car taking in all the cars next to me, still wondering what caused the disturbance of traffic, when those darn thoughts started to come back again. I wasn’t expecting to slow down here. I was in a hurry and needed to get things done. This wasn’t in my plan. I was moving forward so well and going where I wanted, why are we stopping now?
When eventually, as I crept closer and closer to the front of the line, I figured out what was causing the sea of cars to my right and my left. I noticed the stoplight apparently wasn’t working correctly. It was blinking red and only allowing a few cars through at a time. In the huge intersection there were cars everywhere and a group of upset people to go along with it all. It was in that moment that the Holy Spirit spoke to my heart and said, “Sometimes when God holds you back/stalls/or stops you briefly, it is to allow the danger ahead to pass by, before He lets you proceed forward. He is keeping you safe while the danger passes ahead of you. Your stopping is not always a bad thing.”
Then as I watched the scene unfolding in front of my eyes I saw, how the stoplight would allow one person at a time to proceed forward and everyone else would wait their turn. Although there were cars piling up at all sides of the stoplight, everyone just had to wait. I am sure the main thought going through every driver’s head was similar to what my first thoughts were. What is going on? I don’t have time for this. But eventually, as I inched my way towards the front of the line and could see past the jammed intersection, I could see why the stoplight had been turned to blinking red. Although we were all irritated with the delay, the truth was that the red light was keeping us safe from the danger ahead. About a mile down the road there was a huge dump truck that had broken down in the middle of the highway and was creating a hazard for all the drivers coming and going. There was debris all across both sides of the road.
The purpose of the stoplight was to stop the heavy, traffic flow and slowly allow a few people through so that it was safe for everyone involved. Even though I was feeling anxious about stopping in the middle of the highway and was wondering what was going on, I could then see, it was actually to protect me. And wow that thought made so much sense to me at that moment. Maybe God has stopped me from moving forward, because He is allowing the danger to pass in front of me before allowing me to proceed again. I realized that it’s not a bad thing to stop for a bit. It doesn’t have to have anything to do with me, just God looking out for me and me needing to trust in Him.
Maybe, today you are at your red light in life and the traffic is building up all around you and you’re feeling anxious to get going again. Maybe, the fact that we are being told we have to stay at home, and it feels like time is just passing us by that it is almost unbearable. Maybe, it’s the fear of the unknown future and what our lives are going to look like after this quarantine. Whatever it may be that is consuming your mind is also consuming your heart, and I can tell you it is extremely hard to hear from God when we are too busy thinking about everything else.
So, maybe, God has put a red light in all our lives right now so that we can finally rest and allow our minds to be quiet for just a bit. Maybe, God has put a stoplight in our lives so that we will come back to Him, hear Him, love Him and give Him our attention. Maybe, God has put a red light in our lives because He is allowing the danger to pass ahead of us before allowing us to proceed. Either way, you can be confident that your red light will be changing to green soon and you can rest in God’s promise of keeping you safe and allowing the danger ahead to pass by first!
I just want to encourage you all today that I feel like God has put the whole world on pause right now to let the danger ahead of us pass and to allow each and every one of His children to come back to Him. Then I feel like He will allow us to move forward again, once it’s safe. He will never leave you or forsake you. Remember, we can all rest in His promises and let’s take this time to continue to seek Him!
With love,
Kaley