Driving Miss Lindsey

This past year I took on a sobering task. My daughter took an online version of driver’s ed, which meant I would be the one to do all her practice driving with her. How hard could it be?
The first day she got behind the wheel, I showed her how to adjust the mirrors and the seat, where to put the key, how to shift into “drive.” She fiercely gripped the wheel at 10 & 2 and touched her foot to the accelerator. Soon we were flying along at eight miles an hour; ants were passing us. I looked over at Lindsey and she began to sing in a la-la-la manner. Yep, driving was pretty easy…at eight miles an hour…on a straight road…with no traffic.
A few Saturdays later, I asked if she was ready to drive into Austin. She said sure. I screamed a few times that day, my friends. Once on MoPac when she started to change lanes while a large truck was occupying the space she wanted. Again when we drove down Guadalupe. Oops, there was a UT home game that afternoon and the street was packed, with cars parked in every available space. I got a lot of ideas for columns that day because my entire life passed before my eyes.
Seriously, though, she did well. After awhile, I knew I had to have a little talk…with myself. I realized I needed to relax. Take my hand off the emergency brake. Trust that she had actually listened and learned. Have some faith in the kid I’ve been guiding all these years.
Sometimes as we drive down the path of life, we think that it might be nice to have someone else controlling things. We expect God to be in the passenger seat of our driver’s ed car, ready to step on His brake if we’re about to crash, ready to reach over and take the wheel when we head into a bad turn. And sometimes we get upset when that doesn’t happen. How could God let me end up like this?
But like any father, He lets us do the driving, going wherever we’re determined to go. God is not the copilot; He’s the passenger. He watches and He worries, hoping we’ve listened, hoping we’ve learned, and loving the ride.