Matt speaking here: Marcel from Mary’s Aggies has been guest posting here once a week over the last month. He’s done a great job and we’ve been lucky to have him. We will continue having doing guest posters because we’re really really lazy and there’s so many great blogs out there. Here’s Marcel’s post. It’s another great one:
I got a speeding ticket a few weeks ago. I wasn’t paying attention and was caught going 36 in a 25 mile an hour area (I didn’t realize it was 25 and thought it to be 30). Regardless, I was guilty.
I didn’t argue with the cop, but was polite and even cracked a few jokes. He didn’t need to pull me over, because I was already in my parking spot behind the church were I work, so he just pulled up behind me. Around our church we have a lot of pedestrian traffic, because we are so close to Texas A&M University . This means several students I know got to snicker at me. One even stopped to talk to me while the cop was running my license.
“Dude, what did you do?”
“Got caught speeding.”
“That sucks.”
“Yeah, well I deserve it.”
I did deserve it. When the cop gave me the ticket and thanked me for being cooperative and polite.
You might be asking why I am rambling on about my ticket (e.g. why is he making this short story into a long one?). It is because I think it closely relates to my life.
I speed through my life sometimes and forget that I am to live in the moment.
I speed right past the most important signs God gives me – my family and friends – in order to get to the next thing.
I find myself distracted too often.
I don’t even “notice” when I am breaking God’s law sometimes.
I am too busy, too rushed, and too hurried.
On the flip side:
I have grown accustomed to being pulled over when I do get out of control – through confession and spiritual direction.
I need accountability in my life.
I find myself humbled by others noticing my imperfections and this is good for me.
I deserve to be ticketed once in a while and need to pay the temporal cost (penance).
God help me slow down – literally and figuratively.
March 18, 2010 at 11:16 am
Thanks for the reminder, Marcel!
March 18, 2010 at 12:23 pm
Awesome points, Marcel, and a very good metaphor you've created here! I, too, just received my first speeding ticket in many years about a week ago, and I also deserved it for failing to pay attention. It was also in Texas, to boot…
March 20, 2010 at 8:17 pm
This was great! I can relate to the need to slow down. There have been so many times I've found myself going 75 on a 65 mph road. One night about a month or so ago, I saw flashing lights behind me, and I pulled over, thinking, "Oh, great! I must have been speeding again. It's finally caught up with me." When the officer reached my window, he told me I had been driving too slowly in the left lane. The speed limit was 65, and I was going around 62. It was nighttime, and I was driving the kids home from Religious Ed. He didn't give me a ticket, and I had to wonder how I'd escaped so many well-deserved tickets, only to be pulled over by a police officer who gave me nothing more than a polite warning about going too slow in the fast lane.
I was mortified and apologized, and I couldn't help but feel guilty about the times I had been driving too fast. I still have to work at slowing down–during daylight hours, anyway. I kept the warning card the police officer gave me. I'm thinking of having it framed.
March 23, 2010 at 1:37 pm
Actually Sarah, he was checking to see if you were drunk. Drunk drivers will often become over cautious and drive slower than the speed limit, plus, from what I've heard, they tend to stay in the left lane (something about the lines guiding them). He could only give a ticket for going slower than the speed limit if it would impede the flow of those going the speed limit.
As for me, I tend to go through life too slowly and would get pulled over for impeding traffic. God's constantly pulling me over to cite me for going 30 when he wants me to go 80 and get things done :p