Recently I have been doing some self-evaluation. And I have discovered that I have a big problem—pet peeves.
One of my pet peeves is people who think they don’t have any pet peeves. Here’s what I have learned. You either know you have some pet peeves, or you are someone’s pet peeve.
Another pet peeve that has slowed my progress to perfection is that paper thin bacon some people fix. If your bacon is thin enough that you can see your wife through it, it’s just too thin. Although looking at the wife through a slice of bacon will always make her lovelier, you shouldn’t be able to see through your bacon.
Another pet peeve has to do with traffic. I don’t think I have ever had road rage. But I will confess to a little highway huffiness now and then, as well as an occasional twinge of interstate indignation. There are actually a couple of causes for this. One is drivers. If everyone else was as good of a driver as I am, there would be no problems. The other cause is road work.
I am not opposed to road work. I understand it is necessary to make our roads better. But why is it necessary to work on the road I am trying to drive on?
My biggest pet peeve, however, may very well be a combination of drivers and road work. Imagine with me for a moment that you are driving down the interstate no more than four miles over the speed limit because everyone knows the police won’t stop you for going four miles over. Then you see that orange sign that arrogantly announces there is road work ahead.
Now that sign may be 5 miles or 52 miles from the work site, but the announcement has been made. And then the next sign announces the left lane is going to be closed, and you need to move into the right lane.
Of course, all the rule followers grudgingly move into the right lane. And so the slow ride begins. Then it happens. Some big, white pickup comes barreling down the left lane.
You know the driver is snickering at the rule followers. You know he is listening to some sort of demonic music. You know he can see the warning signs about how the left lane is coming to an end. He just keeps speeding down that lane oblivious to the signs and to the rule followers who have now come to a grinding halt.
And you know that when that pickup gets to the end of the left lane, some soft-headed, tender-hearted rule follower in front of you is going to let him in the right lane. And that will delay my getting through the work zone by at least four to 11 seconds. You talk about a pet peeve!
And then, as the Lord is prone to do for me, He used what I was upset about to teach me a lesson. It went like this. There are a lot of people in this world speeding through life past sign after sign that says their lane is coming to an end. But they are making great time and enjoying the ride until they absolutely run out of a lane.
You know what happens next. One of those rule followers with enough grace and mercy lets that vehicle into the safe lane.
That’s really what the Great Commission tells us. As we are going through life, we need to do everything we can to get those who are in danger of running out of a lane into the lane we are in. We need to make room for them to get in the right lane even when it hinders our progress.
After all, that is the only lane that can get you where you really need to be. And we might be the only hope someone has to get in that lane.
Maybe I need to trade in my pet peeves for the grace and mercy someone else needs to get into the right lane to get through this life and into eternity. Well, maybe not the bacon pet peeve.
