Its a half mile drive into the industrial park where I work. You go past four or five other business entrances before you dead end at our company's cul de sac.
The curving road is about 4 car widths wide. Big enough for 2 cars side by side in each direction.
Here's the thing.
There are no painted road stripes or turn markings. Just this paved road in the industrial park.
Better said, there are no intentionally painted road stripes.
Very visible are the black tar seams poured between the concrete slabs that make it look like there are four distinct car lanes.
I chuckle to watch how closely a lone car will stay within these meaningless strips of black tar. Especially at the curve near the halfway point. I like to drive a straight line through this curve - the shortest distance between two points. But in my rearview mirror I'll see the next person meticulously trace an imaginary inside lane close to the curb. And sometimes someone in a rush will "shift lanes" behind me, trying to anticipate which "one" I'm going to choose.
It's liberating to know that I'm not constrained by imaginary boundaries like these other people are.
What are they thinking?
This must be how much of the world sees Christians and our biblical worldview.
Much of what guides us - from Jesus' teachings, to Paul's letters, Proverbs and the prophets - is not painted on the ground for everyone to see.
It may be so clear to us that we look like we're driving an imaginary line along the curb through the curve.
Forgive people without retaliating.
Give something without expecting something back.
Praise someone else's good work without drawing attention to your own.
They occupy those same lanes sometimes, certainly, but how liberating to know it is at their option.
Preserve the life of innocents.
Encourage and promote God's view of family unity.
Recognize the value of personal accountability.
Acknowledge a Creator of inconvenient Truth.
To some people, these look more like tar lines in the concrete, so they drive a different line through the curve. Some even chuckle when they see me in their rearview mirror.
As I drive home from our industrial park, I pull onto a tree-lined parkway for a mile or so.
The parkway is almost identical in overall width, but it is poured asphalt, with no concrete lines.
Everybody drives this parkway as though there are only two lanes, one in each direction.
They have no idea that in a nearby part of town there are other people driving like there are four.
How do you drive when there are no visible lines in the road?
