On my way to work at Feed My Starving Children, there are 27
stoplights (Yes, I counted them. There are 27.). That’s a lot of stoplights. It’s especially a lot of stoplights on the
occasions when I hit them when they are red.
You know how it goes… patiently waiting for the light to turn green,
trying to increase or decrease your speed so you don’t have to stop at a red
light, inching forward toward the line to try to trip or trick the light timer,
waiting for the irresponsible drivers in front of you to stop texting and pay
attention when the light does turn green.
There is this one street near Augustana College where there
is a stoplight every single block or two, about 6 of them in a row. The timing on these lights is such that you
hit every single light when it’s red or you hit the lights and they are all
green. You can imagine the fury when you
hit each of them when they are red. But
when you hit those lights at exactly the right time, you can just sail through
them all.
It’s one of the best feelings in the world.
One time in my small group we were talking about prayer and
someone brought up the idea of praying for green lights. Well, it had never occurred to me to pray for
green lights. There are a lot of
theological questions packed up in this idea: Does God have the power to make
stoplights turn green? What if two
people coming to a light from perpendicular directions both pray for a green
light? Does God have time to deal with
such seemingly insignificant things? Is
this something we should even bother God with?
Aren’t there more important things to pray about?
I will say that I may have prayed for some stoplights to
turn green and prayed for some lights to stay green recently. And God has answered this prayer a few times…
However, I’ve had some difficulty with metaphorical red and
green lights in life. Green lights are
those things that God puts in my life and says, “Ok, Melissa, this is a good
thing for you to do. Do it.” And red lights are those things in life that
God tells me, “Melissa, this isn’t a good thing for you to do. Don’t do it.” I really really wish God would do this
audibly, but God hasn’t yet. It usually
happens in the form of “nudges” or things that do or don’t come into my life. And I’m ok with this.
But sometimes I feel like God is messing with me. He puts things in my path, things that I get
really excited about, he gives me green lights, and I’m more than ready to go
through these intersections. But then,
all the sudden the light turns yellow.
God tells me to slow down when going through the intersection, or take a
different direction when going through the intersection, or to wait a while
before going through the intersection. But
the worst is when I feel like God has given me a green light and I’m about
ready to drive through an intersection at full speed and then the light
abruptly turns red. No yellow light to
warn me. Just a big, bright, red light
telling me that what I thought were signs of a green light weren’t.
Super frustrating and discouraging and disappointing. And it leaves me upset and stressed and
confused.
But there are also red lights or lights I don’t even know
are there that all the sudden turn green.
A red light I have been praying about for a while turns green. Something completely unexpected opens up. A green light shines brightly.
It’s one of the best feelings in the world.
