Sunday, November 2, 2014

The Point of Yielding


There’s a yield sign, at the point where I’m ready to take the ramp to the highway and get to work. 

It’s not yet rush hour for most, so I rationalize that I can rush on ahead. I’ve got work to do, and the sooner the better. Or so it seems.

Sometimes after I’ve passed that sign, I’ll see a car approaching from the other direction. We each had time to enter the ramp safely, and so all is well. Or so it seems.

But when I stop to consider the purpose of the yield sign, I stop calculating my speed as due diligence, and my timing as precision.

The driver’s ed class I took in high school never said: Prepare to stop at the yield sign unless you have somewhere important to go.

My driver’s ed manual never had a page that read: Prepare to stop at the yield sign unless you can speed up to get by.

And the grace I’ve known in all my travels was never based on my plans or my handling at the wheel. The grace I know is God within and without, and too often I don’t prepare to stop at all to hear from Him. 

I’m eager to do the work He’s given me, but I’ve often let that work take my focus from Him – when it’s His guidance and empowerment that I need to depend on, moment by moment. I care about other people, but I’ve often rushed past someone He sent my way – when it’s His encouragement and love that both of us just missed out on sharing.

I have an opportunity to yield throughout the day, to stop for yet another moment. 

Just to interrupt what I’m doing, what I’m saying, even what I’m thinking long enough for God to get a Word in. To apply His ways to the situation at hand.


There’s a yield sign, at every point.

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