“Life in the fast lane. Surely make you lose your mind. Life in the fast lane.”  Lyrics by The Eagles

If you drive in a big city that does not have a transit system, chances are, you have spent a good part of your life waiting in traffic. It used to bother me, being stuck in traffic. I would get very agitated and stressed out. I would change lanes looking for a better way. I took Defensive Driving class. It sort of helped. What really helped was taking the class again, and again, every three years whether I needed to or not, to get the insurance discount. It made me a better, more Defensive Driver.

After awhile, I didn’t mind being stuck in traffic anymore, but I did mind, maybe a little, being stuck in Defensive Driving class. The instructor was good, and tried to make it lighthearted and interesting. However, the irony of it was always bothersome. Here we all were, mostly responsible citizens, all of whom had car insurance and were probably decent drivers, maybe a few with minor driving infractions. We were all attending a class learning how to be better. Meanwhile, on the city streets were people with horrible driving records, no insurance, dilapidated cars with loads not tied on properly, old tires – accidents waiting to happen. None of those drivers were spending their evening  attending better driving school. We were spending our time learning how to avoid them!! The message is right, but the audience is wrong, I would think. “I’m a pretty decent driver”. I would still learn a lot in the class, and it’s probably saved me from some serious accidents. I know it has made me a better driver, and it was hedge against rising insurance rates, so I kept taking the class.

I was thinking recently – how church is a similar experience. Here are a bunch of people, most of whom are decent and respectable, going to church every Sunday focused on being better. Some may have received tickets, or wake up calls, and now want to do better. Some are told that while we are good drivers, we could be better. We are taught to love our enemies – are they the people in that overloaded truck carrying wooden pallets? We are instructed to dig deep into our hearts to look for inconsistencies and hypocrisy in our lives, to stay a safe distance away from bad drivers and temptation. Now all of this is good – we are not better than anyone else just because we go to church. But I will bet you that most of us at some point have sat in church thinking “I’m a good person”, just like we sit in Defensive Driving class thinking “I’m a good driver”. In both cases, it’s the other guy (or gal) who needs to be listening to this message, not us, we think!

Most people go to church because they feel it is important to hear God’s message, like Defensive Driving, it is good for the soul and you may need that someday. They get spiritual renewal, a sense community, an uplifting message, and maybe even three more years of insurance discounts, so to speak. But is the message reaching the people who need to feel God’s love the most? Like Defensive Driving, are we limiting the class to just those Christians who can afford to take it, who can spare the time, who care enough to be better? And does this really give us a ticket dismissal to the Pearly Gates?

I drive down the super-slab highway to downtown. There are four lanes. In the Fourth and Fastest Lane on the left there is an impatient person who is tailgating everyone. ‘Type A’, I say to myself – he’s got to be there before everyone and just get out of his way!. The Third Lane over has people like me – going the speed limit or slightly faster, trying to keep up, counting “1-1000, 2-1000,” staring at the bumper in front of us and trying to stay a safe distance behind, but not too far back or someone from another lane might butt in. The Second Lane over seems to have people with problems – we don’t want them in our well-behaved Third Lane, I think to myself. They are people with beat up cars, carrying loads too heavy, cars with dents or rust hanging off, people on cell phones, with crying babies in the back, older people who are leaning way over the dashboard to see, and giant trucks carrying pipes or towing cars. So lane two has mostly problems, and a few “helper” type vehicles. Lane One are people who are just entering or exiting the freeway, trying to figure out what lane to be in – where are they going and who do they want to drive next to?

So the people entering the freeway are like people who come to church for the first time – is anyone going to let them sit in Their Lane ? Who will move over to let them in ? Lane Two, the problem and helper people will usually make room for another. Lane Three people like me will sometimes let them in, if they look like a decent driver. Lane Four people just want everyone out of their way. Think about the analogy to church – have you ever tried to get on a crowded freeway and no one will let you in? There is no lonelier feeling, except maybe one – going to a crowded church and not knowing who is going to move over so you can sit down.

What about the people exiting the freeway? Do we cut them off? Do we zip in and out of their Lanes? Do we notice? Are we relieved that there is now more room for people like us? Do we change lanes when the traffic is at a stand still? Do we exit and take a different route altogether? Would Jesus be in Lane Two, or traveling a different road, or a lone Hitchhiker hanging out close to Lane One? Or is He like the Defensive Driving instructor, not reaching everyone, just the well-behaved drivers?

None of this is intended as judgement- we all have our roles, our Lanes. The Lane Three people are the ones who have spent their lives trying to drive better, to become better believers, better spouses, better parents, better employees. Lane Four fast track people tend to be self-sufficient, successful, and happier if everyone would just drive like them. Fast. Impatient. They may even cause accidents and not even realize it is their fault. They think more people should drive just like them. In this sense, they are role models, but many Lane Three people who sometimes venture into Land Four realize it’s not for everyone and quickly move back.

I think we have all been in any of these lanes at some point on the freeway, in our lives, or in our churches. We are either too busy to notice the problems of Lane Two, or too worried their problems, which seem insurmountable, might cause a problem for us. Sometimes we are too focused on getting where we are going on time. Some may be helper vehicles, already carrying a full load that we need to drop off before we take on something else.

When a freeway gets too crowded or too antiquated, or beat up, they repair it, or expand it or sometimes even build a whole new one. Are churches the same way? Do we expand to let more cars in? Or do we speed up just a little to make sure no one gets in Our Lane? Do we repair the pot holes? Do we preach to the good drivers about how to avoid being a bad driver? Do we preach to the good drivers about being better drivers? Do we welcome bad drivers at all or is it cost prohibitive? Do we assume we know everything about why the bad drivers are indeed bad – what their situation is, why they are driving badly, why they seem stuck in Lane Two? Do we let the “helpers” into Lane Three or are we worried about the load they are carrying?

I say “we” because we are all the Church. We steward the lanes of the freeway the same way that the transportation department does. We hold the Defensive Driving, or Defensive Believer Classes, the ones where we say “watch out for these kinds of people”. We train people to get on and off the freeway, and safely into Lane Three. We sometimes even encourage them to act more like the aggressive Lane Four people. But do we ever slow down and just think what it might be like if you were stuck in Lane Two, with a heavy load, ill-equipped to drive, no money for insurance, car and lives too full to even keep up, and have people racing by you defending their beliefs, and not letting them in? Do we move over in the pews to let others in? Some churches are better at this than others. I have experienced some that are like toll roads, open, but not for everyone. Lane Four Heaven. High Occupancy Vehicle and Express Lanes are full of people willing to pay the price for a nicer, faster, commute. There are some churches that are like crowded highways, popular, but no room for new expansion, and some that are like country highways, beautiful, but narrow lanes, and therefore lightly traveled. Some are like Interstates, very mainstream, covering large areas, normally dependable, until there is a Lane Closure.

So the analogy may or may not be apt but it got me to thinking.I confess to sometimes sitting in church the same way I sit on the freeway, safely guarded in Lane Three, counting “1-1000, 2-1000”, keeping a safe distance, thinking things like “I’m a good driver, but I could be better”. While I appreciate the message and the attempts by the instructor, I still look around, gazing in the mirrors, focused, but warily on guard to avoid collisions with the Lane Four and Lane Two drivers.  I am after all, content to be in Lane Three.

(lwr, 10/24/2017)