Falling Asleep Behind the Wheel

For those of you who do not live around my neck of the woods, the weather was less than desirable this morning. It’s cold. It’s rainy. It’s dark. It’s dreary. It’s cold. Did I mention it’s cold? Yes? Ok. So, as I was saying before, the weather isn’t what I would categorize as great or anything, which means driving in it is not so fun either. In fact, it seems like when it rains people around here forgot how to drive. Here’s where I start to blame others…

I placed my youngest in the van, turned on one of his jams (“Hurricane” by Bridget Mendler), and started off towards his school. As I reached the intersection I looked to my left and to my right. I noticed some cars off in the distance, but nothing to worry about…then BAM! No, I didn’t get into a wreck, but I nearly did.

As I was pulling out across the lane I barely caught a glimpse of a dark, maroon colored car (basically hidden in the dark rainy…and cold…weather). Why didn’t I see this car? How could I miss it? Then I realized why I hadn’t noticed the car, whoever was driving neglected to turn on the headlights and because of THEIR mistake, I nearly sideswiped them.

Yes…it was THEIR fault!

Or so I started to try and convince myself…and then it was like the Spirit of God took hold of my heart, pulled in close to my ears, and whispered, “You’re going to write about this later.” Then I knew it. It wasn’t the fault of the OTHER driver, it was MY fault.

That is why many among you are weak and sick, and a number of you have fallen asleep.
1 Corinthians 11:30 NIV84

I had fallen asleep. I had grown so accustomed to my routine, so accustomed to driving back and forth between my house and my son’s house, so accustomed to setting expectations on every other driver, that I had fallen asleep behind the wheel. I had the subconscious assumption that everyone was going to have their headlights on, so my mind didn’t even pick up on the other car…they remained unseen to my closed eyes.

And I started thinking, man this is how so many of us approach our recoveries. We get in the program. We start working the 12 Steps. We start applying the 8 Principles. We experience a bit of healing. We catch a glimmer of hope. We feel like we’re getting better. We start to think, “I got this.” Without knowing it, we fall asleep.

We let our defenses down.
We become lazy.
We lose sight of reality.
We fall asleep.

Then without warning, BAM! Wreckage. Destruction. Death.

Take a few minutes this morning and really look at where you are today and how you’re doing. Are your eyes open or have you fallen asleep?