Roadtrips are a fun activity enjoyed with friends and family, usually on long weekends or holidays. Getting from place to place safely requires planning, skill and good rest.
Do you consider yourself as a good and safe driver on a road trip? Studies in the past in the US have shown that most Americans think they are better drivers than other American drivers. One survey had 64% of American drivers rate themselves as “excellent” or “very good” drivers. I’m sure if there are studies done in Australia, we would see similar results. Do people who ride in your car think you are a good driver?
When we observe or ride in someone’s car as a passenger, we will gauge how they drive and form an impression of their driving skills. We do this because we are concerned for our lives and the lives of those around.. Are we like this in other areas of our lives in which we are passengers?
Traits of a good driver
For me, I have a few qualities that I look for when choosing whether it is safe to sit in the car as the passenger. They include: awareness of surroundings, smoothness of driving, knowing your skill and vehicle’s limitations and looking after your passengers so that they are not worried about their safety.
One of the most important traits is being alert and aware of your surroundings. A driver who is alert and observant of the road, as well as of other drivers and conditions is able to react quickly and correctly to unexpected circumstances. Whilst they may not be in control of another driver micro-sleeping or a thunderstorm, they can drive to the conditions in order to keep their passengers safe.
Some habits include: checking mirrors and blind spots, checking side streets and intersections, keeping an eye out for other drivers’ dangerous behaviours, looking ahead and slowing down to the weather conditions or road conditions.
Being a good passenger
On the flip side, there are probably “unspoken” rules about being a good passenger in a car. These include: not distracting the driver, not obscuring the driver’s vision (mirrors or blind spot checking), following the driver’s instructions, keeping the car clean by not spilling crumbs or drinks and putting on your seatbelts.
We observe these rules because we too want to get safely to our destination and not inconvenience the driver.
We choose to sit in a person’s car as a passenger because we trust that their experience and skill will get you to your destination. This is much like faith and the object that we put our faith in.
The object of our faith
Faith simply means trust. When we choose to be a passenger in someone’s car, we are knowingly or unknowingly putting our trust in the driver and the car for our safety to get to our destination.
This implies that the object in which we put our trust is very important. For example, on our roadtrips, we would trust that a car would take us to our destination more easily than walking.
No matter how much faith (or trust) we may put in a bicycle to ride us from Australia to New Zealand, it will not be able to get us there. However, putting a little bit of faith in the right object, such as the plane or boat, we will be able to arrive at our destination.
Jesus as the driver of our lives
When we look back at the traits of a good driver, we can see that in our lives, Jesus is the best driver that anyone can have. The Bible tells us that we are all in big trouble with God because we have sinned and chosen to live our own way and not God’s way (Romans chapter 3, verses 22 to 23).
However, the Bible also talks a lot about why putting our trust in Jesus is the best decision anyone can ever make in their lives (Romans chapter 5, verses 6 to 11). Jesus is the only one who can save us from our sins; the only one who knows us more than any other and in turn can look after us; the only one who can bring us to God.
Jesus is the only one that can get us to our destination, being right with God, safely. That is, there is nothing that we can do in our lives that will mend the broken relationship we have with God.
Passengers of Christ
As a passenger in our lives, putting our faith in Jesus means trusting him even when times are difficult, or when we might not be able to see what is going on around us. We can have assurance that because Jesus is God, He knows everything that is happening and in actual fact, there is nothing that is out of his control.
As we go about our daily lives, are we being vigilant with what we put our trust in? Is it money, career, popularity or personal successes? Can any of these things make us right with God?
Choose the right driver and investigate Jesus who is the best driver of them all.
Brandon Tsang is a Sydney-based writer currently working in IT. He studied Marketing and Economics at UNSW and loves to spend his spare time hiking, playing volleyball or watching Netflix.
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