I acquired my first driver’s licence in the United States where driving happens in the right side of the road and the driver seats on the left side of the vehicle. However when I went to countries where they drove on the left side of the road and the steering wheels were on the right side of the vehicles I became confused.
My entire driver’s experience had been on the left side of the car riding on the right side of the road. I had learned and gotten used to driving with the bulk of the car to my right so to drive in the opposite side, with the bulk of the car to my left and having to go through narrow spaces, made me feel totally insecure and made me scratch some rear view mirrors.
However, after living for many years in countries driving on the other side, it became normal to me. Today I can drive on both sides with absolute confidence with no problem regardless of how narrow the ways might be.
We have the tendency to think that our way of seeing life and living it is the only way, the correct and best one. We look at the word of God from our cultural perspective thus validating our own ways, when maybe we should look at our culture from the word of God’s perspective to unveil his way for us. The divine alternatives are always superior to ours!
As disciples of Jesus we cannot stay limited to our own earthly knowledge, we must keep on learning, searching for other ways, electing the best, abandoning the obsolete. Many times Jesus started his talks by saying: “You have heard that it was said, but I tell you…”.
The master continues to call us to new standards, let’s leave the past behind and head firmly without fear to the future following through the new ways that he wants to take us!
- What things have you learned to do in different and better ways?
- Through which new ways is Jesus calling you to follow?
(Searching for the best, 1 Thessalonians 5:21-22 / Searching for transformation, Romans 12:2).
Commissioner Torben Eliason is the Territorial Commander of the Southern Africa Territory