Road rage and a bad Monday…

This was not the car described in my post today, but this was I real car, with a real saying, that I didn't edit.

I was driving to work a few Monday’s back, actually making good time on my almost 40 mile commute, when it happened…

I experienced my first really serious road rage incident.

No, it wasn’t me, and yes I’ve had others, they have mostly been an inappropriate wave, the odd beep, or someone cutting me off slightly - really not too bad with over 500,000 miles driven, mostly in the last 15 years. It’s really pretty rare, that someone gets upset when I’m on the road, and I really try not to encourage any craziness.

But on this day, it was a good one…

I was headed south on I-65 and a woman pulled quickly in behind me. She swerved pretty strongly into my lane, so I kept my eyes open to make sure no issues would occur...glad I did.

She came up within a very small distance of my bumper wild eyed and obviously wanting to pass. I was already 10 over the speed limit, in an area where I knew people were pulled over daily, so I couldn't speed up and the right lane beside me was blocked. She kept creeping up on my car, so I tapped the brakes to show my brake lights, hoping she just didn’t realize how close she was, and would back off. 

She found a way to cut over 2 lanes to the right and swung over in front of me, almost side-swiping my front end (I had to hit the brakes hard to ensure I was not hit). I slowed down because it was obvious she was crazy (used intentionally). She then began to hit her brakes hard slowing me down. I slowed way down and pulled over to the right as soon as I could. She stayed near me for about a mile, and I avoided her.

I stayed behind her, so as to not create any further encounter, but watched as she came up on several other bumpers, cut off a motorcyclist and almost rammed another driver. Traffic was a little thick and she was not able to get very far, so she would cut over from lane to lane, without a signal, and cut people off. She got behind another person and obviously didn’t like it, because she then went off-road onto the center shoulder and tried to pass. Debris was flying everywhere. She backed off then cut over a couple of lanes and tried to hit that person, and knock them off the road. I took my exit and wondered when she would cause an accident.

Why am I telling you this?

Because…

• People have bad days, and sometimes those bad days will impact you, whether you like it or not. Pray for others around you.

• You don’t really know what your day brings forth, even though you have your own routine. Pray for God’s protection.

• Others don’t always care about you, but you still need to care about them. Pray that you’ll care for your enemies.

• Bad things happen to good people, because there is sin in the world, so don’t expect a utopia everyday. Pray for God’s wisdom and grace to get through each day.

Lessons Learned: Always learn from your daily experiences. Get out of the way of road rage.

Thoughts: What did you learn today? 

#failalot

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