Taking Time

I was driving over a newer overpass at a major intersection of two very busy freeways, and I noticed the black marks of tires and scrap marks of bumpers along the guard rails. I don't think I really paid much attention to the guard rails on other over passes, so after seeing this on this particular bridge I decided to make sure I looked while driving on some more overpasses. I was blown away at the amount of marks along every overpass I have driven on in the last four days. After paying attention to these marks I began to wonder about the cars that made these marks. And I really do wonder what condition they were in. After awhile of pondering what the car was looking like, I then turned my thoughts to the person inside the car. Questions ran through my mind; Where they hurt? Where they drunk? Cellphone? Text Message? A child distracting them from back seat? A significant other? What caused them to ver so close to the guard rail that they bumped into it.
Today I was recapping all of these thoughts and it dawned on me how many times in my "Christianity" do I just pass life on by and not notice the crazy marks life makes. And well I took that even farther even if I noticed the marks, I was to busy thinking about the circumstances that caused the marks. And well I had to go farther and I was convicted that even if I was focusing on the circumstances I was missing the persons involved in the circumstances.
Isn't it interesting that the majority of the time we notice the effects of circumstances in life, then we notice the circumstances that caused the effects, and then we notice the person(s) involved. And as we are going through this "routine" we tend to judge and unfortunately we miss the individuals that are effected. I also find it interesting that because of our "routine" and the order of our "routine" we tend to take the circumstance and the effect of the circumstance and we make it almost impossible to reach out and help the person being effected.
If we take time and look for the person before circumstance and find the person before the effects of that circumstance then relationships are formed and I believe we have just lived and loved as Jesus. Take some time...