Wednesday, March 11, 2015

rites of passage








I learned the truth at 17, that driving licenses were handed out quite freely, and ability may not have anything to do with obtaining one.  Our high school had discontinued driver’s ed. when I was a sophomore, and turning the legal age of 17 my junior year, I was more than ready to drive.  A few of us had driven other’s cars illegally, and had a basic understanding of the relationship between gas pedal and speed, and brakes and stopping.  A little wide on turns, radio too loud, maybe a warning we were approaching, and with only a legal license to separate us from the legal drivers.  But after a painful two weeks of having one of my parents ride with me while on my permit, the day came, and all the warnings came back to me waiting my turn in line.  We had been warned about the big fat guy, how he was described, who used to work at the inspection station, and failed many a car whose headlights were aimed too high after he sat in it, then too low when retested with a normal sized human being.  Now he was a tester for getting your license.  Fortunately it was given during the day.  We had been told hands at 10 and 2, no radio on, and keep hands on the wheel.  Don’t be fooled if offered a stick of gum and removing one.  We had been told about driving too fast, not too slow, and to check mirrors, turn your head when backing, and how the dreaded parallel parking was the ultimate test, and how many had succumbed to its curse and not passed.  I had passed the written test, but failed the eye test, and with new glasses on, was ready for battle.  And then the driver’s test inspector hopped in our 1966 Rambler, and the ride of my life was to begin.
After handing him my paperwork, he asked a few qualifying questions, one hit me, “how long have you been driving?”  A trick question for sure, if I said never, I lied, and they would find out, if I told the truth I might be failed because I had driven without a license.  That question wasn’t on the test.  So I told him about a year, and he said fine, let’s go.  Making it out of the parking lot, turn signals on, I turned, and proceeded at 34 mph, 1 under the limit.  The tester was making small talk, and asked if I wanted anything.  And then motioned to pull over in front of a store, and again asked “do you want something to drink?”  The spots were clear, no parallel parking needed, and I hadn’t hit the curb, and I sat quietly, radio off, while he went inside.  A few long minutes later he returned, told me “OK, let’s go back,” and we took off, making a series of right turns to get back.  Pulling into the parking lot, tester with coffee in one hand , donut still in the other, we parked, he asked if I had any questions, and then he signed off.  I had passed!  I was legal!  Look out New Jersey, then the world-here Mikey comes!  All the fears, all the trepidation, all the warnings meant nothing, and this was probably the easiest trip to the store I would ever make.  And the first of 5 states I would eventually obtain a driver’s license in.  The rites of passage to drive had been met head on, and successfully mastered.  The next stop, the office at school to get my parking permit, but that would have to wait, why mess up a great day of remembrance by going to school?  So off I went driving everywhere I could, stopping to get gas, “$2 please,” as the attendant gave me gas, looking as if I had done it hundreds of times before.  Lunch at McDonalds, parking as close to the door so everyone could see me driving, so what if it was a Rambler...and suddenly girls wanted to go out with me.  Must have been the Rambler...and another rite of passage was ahead.  No more dates with my Dad driving, or meeting somewhere, now I got to pick up my date, and meet her parents.  Would the tests of life never end?
You have to ask?  Trials and tests, everyday occurrences aren’t they?  They are for me, and come with a built in legacy of failure for some of us.  We never plan to fail, but what if I hadn’t passed my driving test?  What if I had been asked to parallel park and failed?  What if I had to scratch my nose and took one hand off the wheel?  Yet these simple trials occur every day, and it seems someone is always there to hope you do fail.  “I told you so,” you can hear them mocking, and the older you get, they don’t diminish.  We are told “in this life you will have trials and temptations.”  If nothing else that should prove scripture correct.  But in the Greek of the New Testament, the word for trial is the same as for temptations.  The same temptations God tells us to not be led into in the Lord’s Prayer.  So what’s up?  Maybe it comes down to a sense of attitude, how we approach things.  65 in 55 zone may be a temptation to one, a trial to another, maybe even a court date.  It is how we handle the situation, and our attitude in it.  As the saying goes “anything with a skirt or wheels will get you in trouble,” some avoid both and never get into trouble.  Yet some fall head long into both and pay the price.  I believe we know in our spirit when we are being tempted, our spirit bears witness to the truth.  It is up to us to exercise self control in that decision.  Meekness, power under control, when we see an open road, but not the cop behind the bushes.  When we see the pretty tempting girl, but not the trap that lays ahead if we go where we know not to go.  Sin has its price, and its wages are death.  So a temptation may be a test, and a test may turn into a temptation.  Only in the spirit will you know the difference.  It takes Jesus, and without him the only sure wage you’ll ever earn is death.  Payable on demand.  But the temptations are there, maybe the driving test was easier when compared to them.  But now that you have that license, you still can get a ticket.  Or even lose it.
Thankfully Jesus forgives, and his grace is forever.  Mercy shown when you screw up, the only way to get it, and again the spirit there to guide you.  Today a simple test, the final exam may be before you.  Life has taught you to study, but this one you don’t want to fail.  Who is Jesus?  If you don’t know him as Lord and savior, as the son of God, as deity, you fail.  And we are even given a chance to take it open book, the Bible.  Now you know the answer to the test, what will you say?  It takes that special relationship for heaven, just like it took a special test to be a legal driver.  No false believers in heaven, God knows the truth.  Your life may have been easy, or it may have been hard, but the signs of God are always there.  No excuses for failure, no retests for salvation.  Once and for all-good in any state, in any country around the world.  And out of this world.  Make sure you obtain the license to heaven today...you never know who may be out to get you.  Maybe some guy in an old Rambler....taking a curve too wide.
Jesus is that license to live, says so right on his license.  Organ donor, he gave his heart and his life so you could live.  Tested by being pulled over?  License and registration please?  Look to Jesus.  A license to live.  And your registraton in heaven.  An insurance card, the only insurance card you’ll ever need for heaven.  The final rite of passage....if this had been a test, would you have passed?
love with compassion,
Mike
matthew25biker.blogspot.com