Stay to the Right

As I drove to church this morning, my wife and I barely avoided an Audi SUV whose driver apparently had no clue that others might also be driving on the road.  Our quiet Shelby County road is one-lane, curvy, and very tight in spots.  When we built our house here sixteen years ago, I was a relatively young pup of thirty-five years.  Being enthusiastic for my new home and neighborhood, I tried my hand at organizing my neighbors to get our little road widened for safety.  I quickly learned that this was a non-starter.  My neighbors informed me that the road was one of the main reasons they moved here.  They said it kept the “through traffic” out.  Unfortunately, it also creates the necessity for constant anticipation of the potential dangers around every curve and over every hill.

When I taught each of my sons to drive, one of the first principles I drilled into them was to “stay to the right” on our narrow road.  As we approached each blind curve and hill, I would begin to repeat the phrase:  “stay to the right, stay to the right.”  I explained that you had to give yourself margin and adjust for the careless driving of others.  You had to anticipate that others would be inattentive, and that you could not afford to be likewise.  I taught them that someone had to have foresight, and that it had better be them.

In the intervening years, on many, many occasions when I was repeating the phrase, “stay to the right,” we would top a hill and barely miss another clueless driver in the middle of the road.  The extra split-second of reaction time was the difference between a close call and a head-on collision.  My sons learned the value of giving themselves margin for error. 

After nearly hitting the ditch this morning, I was thinking about the advice I’d always given them.  While true on a one-lane road, building reaction margin is no less important in life.  Problems are best dealt with before they happen.  We may not know what is around the next corner, but we if we assume something is there we can better prepare for it.  Foolish people live as if they will never have a problem or challenge.  They see no risks to their marriage, their job, their families, or their character.  They build in no safeguards and believe themselves immune from temptation or failure.  They live as if they will never die and as if they have no need for God.  The wise person assumes the opposite.

In life, often we need to “stay to the right.”  Are you beginning to feel an attraction to someone other than your spouse?  Stay to the right.  Considering a shady business deal?  Stay to the right.  Making choices that will shortchange your family?  Stay to the right.  Neglecting to cultivate a relationship with God?  Stay to the right.  We shouldn’t wait until we are in a crisis to anticipate that one might come - I can already tell you that the next crisis is coming.  The question is, will you have built any margin into your life to deal with your coming crisis, or will you be crushed by it?  Stay to the right.