Yes, four-way stops. Picture it: four cars arrive at an intersection mere seconds apart. Four completely unrelated individuals going four different directions, all with their own agenda. No names are exchanged, there's no transaction of any kind, not even a nod of the head, though occasionally a gesture of deference. It's fairness in its truest form. You arrive first, you go first; be the last to arrive and by the time you've come to a complete stop it's usually your turn to go anyway. There's even a guideline if the order is questionable -- the person on the right has the right-of-way in cases too close to call.
I marvel every time this works and my girls are used to my gushing praise. "Do you see that, girls? Do you see how everyone following the rules benefits all of us? Do you see how simple and smoothly this works? Now what would happen if every person who pulled up to this intersection made up their own rule about when they should be able to drive through it?" Rolled eyes are the general response, and I'm okay with that. My youth was spent with the same undercurrent of rebellion. Rules are stupid things that keep me from what I want. Life would be so much more fun if I didn't live under this tyrant of a parent.
Rules seemed like constant hurdles to be jumped or at the least circumvented. They stood in the way of my wants and desires and even the simplest ones were an irritant. And so I rebelled against the rules in large and small ways and discovered the pain of consequences. There might be pain in living under the rules, but there's certainly no long-term pleasure in living without them.
It takes time and maturity to discover that it's much easier to obey the rules than to deal with the consequences. Pick one, rules or consequences, because you're going to have to be reconciled to one or the other.
"I run in the path of your commands, for you have set my heart free." Psalm 119:32
The Holy Spirit had a different highway in mind when he first drafted the laws to be written on our hearts. Not a path filled with inconvenient hurdles, but laws that form the borders of the track, keeping out unnecessary hurt, pain and heartache, allowing us to run the race without anything to trip us up.
"....let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us...." Hebrews 12:1
Running a trail race this weekend was a visual reminder of how much easier it is to stay on the marked path, following the route markers. Though I didn't know what to expect around the next corner, I was able to keep my pace, confident that someone familiar with the area had gone ahead and marked the easiest path with the fewest obstacles.
So run your race, Dear Daughters, with the confidence that comes from staying in the path of His commands, for He has set your heart free from all of those nasty consequences that lay outside the marked path. And no rolling stops, please, because police officers are also interested in your driving habits at a four-way stop -- though not quite as concerned as your Earthly Mother and Heavenly Father.
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