Road Work. Heart Work.

A Rare Red Light at the First Signal Light …

So I’m a Skeptic.
I don’t like upsets to my routine.  There. I’ve said it. Oh, I love a spontaneous outing. I thrive on travel, new places, new people. But within my regular workaday schedule, I’ll take the status quo, thank you. So I did not embrace the roadwork at a major intersection around the corner from my office.

The left-turn lanes, always jammed and backed up for an entire block, were getting facelifts. White lines that had been laid down long, long ago were sandblasted off the asphalt and new streamlining was traced down in their place. Workers in hardhats and orange vests set out cones, clogging traffic as the “improvements” were implemented. I was dubious. Who ever saw traffic get better?

After weeks and weeks, the workers disappeared, taking their cones and warning signs with them. I made my way through the intersection, sailing through the two signal lights on the green. What a fluke, I thought. Usually both those signals, just a block apart, stop me. 

The next evening, the same thing happened. Odd. And the night after that, and the one after that, and the one after that, too, I cleared both intersections on green lights, with no waiting.

But I still didn’t get it.  Nope. It took another entire week of wide-open intersections for me to finally believe it:

 But Once that Light Turns Green …

It’s Clear, Flowing Like Water …
… All the Way Through the Second Signal Light. And Yes it is Legal to Fire off the Shutter Release While Driving. 

The improvements had, well, improved things.


I like to think I’m an optimist, but I can sure be wary of good news. Even when it’s right under my nose, I hesitate. I don’t want to accept it. At least, I don’t buy in quickly.

God help me, at times I’m just as wary of the Good News.  Really, God? A wretch like me? A home awaits me  in Your heaven, just for accepting Your Son into my heart? It seems too good to be true. I remind myself of Gideon, wanting some kind of sign, holding my breath, waiting for the strings.

But there are no strings. All I have to do is accept my Savior, and I’m saved.

And it goes for you, too. That’s amazing, isn’t it? Almost like traffic in Southern California getting better. Or a bureaucratically-planned improvement actually improving things.

23 “What do you mean, ‘If I can’?” Jesus asked. “Anything is possible if a person believes.”24 The father instantly cried out, “I do believe, but help me overcome my unbelief!”Mark 9:23-24 (NLT)