Looking Ahead
Remember doing donuts in a parking lot or driving a bit recklessly? Every three years or so, my employer requires an advanced driving course where I am asked to practice driving in some simulated hazardous conditions.
Sounds like fun? It is, really, but the goal is to help me be a better defensive driver. So I have a better feel for anti-lock brakes, hydroplaning, and steering through a skid on ice.
One of the repeated messages throughout the day was to “look where you want to go”. It sounds simple, but the message was that many drivers only look 50-100 feet ahead of their vehicle and this can result in minimal reaction times to a real emergency. By looking ahead to “where you want to go”, you have the ability to see and react to the things immediately in front of you as well.
Try it. Focus your attention on the horizon (where you want to go) and you’ll notice the impact this has on your vision.
The same is true, I think, in life. What is the goal? What happens at the end? What will matter then?
Too often I am distracted by the immediate problems or situations I face. Most of the time they are trivial things in the big picture, but I can become obsessed by them. How about you? Are you looking “where you want to go”?
I must confess to my only fulfillment of “looking at where I want to go” is probably met in looking to Jesus in my daily walk through “looking where I am”. Such has always been my practice, however, (other than the addition of Jesus in my 30th year along the way) and no doubt stems from a time in my life where I can yet remember thinking to myself: “No matter what happens today, I’ve got to get up tomorrow and face again whatever comes to pass.” Pessimistic? Melancholic? I know only that Christ has been a welcomed entry into the journey…