My occasional Monday
morning two-hour drive to work turned out almost five hours on November 17th.
Why? It was the first day of the 2014 winter downpour in Southwestern Ontario. I
left home quite early enough to get to work about an hour before time but the
bitterly cold winter condition accompanied with the briskly blowing wind, reminiscent
of the Chinook condition prevalent in Southern Alberta, sent a 'driver beware' message to everyone plying
the highways and the byways on that day; You drove with caution to arrive
safely at your destination.
For most parts of
the journey, I drove between 40 and 90km below the posted speed limit
and at some points, I came to a complete halt behind other vehicles piled up on
HWY 401 heading to the GTA.
It was a slow drive
especially considering the numbers of things I planned on doing at work early
that morning. About an hour to my final destination, astonishingly, while we
were slowly trailing each other on my lane, the other lane was not moving at
all. An accident had occurred in which a large truck was seen lying ninety
degrees in the direction of oncoming vehicles. The paramedics were moving
around to manage the casualties while the police were working on diverting traffic
to a bypass. For several kilometers or miles if you like, all types and shapes
of vehicles were bumper to bumper with each other – none of them was
making any progress.
Reflecting on this event
as we continued the stop-move, stop-move rhythm on my lane, I got one of the most profound illuminations anyone could receive starting a
new day and a new week.
‘’No matter how
slow things might appear today, be thankful that you are still making progress.
If you look closely around you, some people are completely grounded and their position is not changing’’
I was humbled by
this illumination and I believe it was the Holy Spirit that sent it my way as a
way of giving me a good start for the week.
One of the greatest
tragedies in life is to be overly ambitious and eccentrically driven by results
to the point where one becomes self-consumed and loses every sense of gratitude for slow and steady 'progresses' made in the journey of life.
Success is sweet;
getting results is refreshing; being grateful however, for the little steps and
occasional stopovers experienced along the way, is more rewarding.
Ingratitude infantilizes
our sense of accomplishment and places us in oddity with reality. About seven billion people occupy this geographical enclave called earth; Life is not about
us alone. There are others around us who are doing more but unfortunately are denied the opportunities and possibilities we have been endowed
with.
Being thankful helps
us to jettison every invitation to be proud and self-centered. It infuses us
with the right perspective and energy to do more and be more for ourselves and
our world.
My four hours
fifteen minutes journey to work reminded me that I am able to do what I do because
of the enablement of GOD; I should therefore be thankful for every situation I encounter
on my road to fulfilling my assignment.
