Dear John, Michael and Doves...
 
Thank you Michael for your timely reminder about how we can turn irritating and aggravating moments in traffic into opportunities to offer up prayers for those in need.
 
Not too long ago, I was sitting behind a car at a stop sign, waiting for them to turn right and it seemed as if they were taking forever to make up their mind about whether they were in their car, or just sitting on a comfortable sofa at home (ha!) .. so I gave them a mild to moderate honk of the horn, and the driver responded with the well-known "one finger salute" and then made his turn.  I made my right turn and as they were poking along, I passed them in the left lane (four lane divided highway), and I could tell the driver was snarling as I went by.
 
I pulled into a shopping center about a half mile up the road and noticed this driver was following me, matching me turn for turn as I looked for a parking space ... I noted that the driver was about 30 years older than I was (meaning he was well into his 70's) and as I parked my car, he went by and parked not too far away.
 
I didn't know whether or not he was going to approach me, so I chose to approach him first.
 
I walked up to his car, he was talking to his wife and looked up at me, and got out of his car, and I said to him "excuse me Sir, could I have a word with you?" and he nodded, and I said "you didn't seem too happy about me honking my horn back there..." and he said "I was having trouble seeing if there was any traffic coming and I didn't want to pull out in front of someone" ... so I apologized to him and told him that it had seemed to me that he was just taking his sweet time ... and that I didn't mean to upset him.  I then told him that it did concern me a bit that his "salute" to me might have provoked a violent response in some other driver who might have been looking for a reason to assault someone and I told him "this world is getting worse by the day, I think we both know that".
 
That's when he got a kind of sheepish grin on his face and said "sorry about that ... (the gesture) ... you're right, wickedness is everywhere anymore".  I told him "Personally, I believe that we will live long enough to see the actual return of King Jesus Christ, because He is the only One who can straighten this planet out".
 
That's when the other driver smiled and said "I think you might be right, and it turned out that we both knew the Lord, we had both allowed ourselves to become aggravated in traffic, and fortunately it was the Holy Spirit that helped to straighten out any misunderstanding, and we shook hands and he told me about his church and some of their ministries, we had some good fellowship, right there in the parking lot.
 
So Michael, there is great wisdom in what you said, and I have experienced that myself. I hope every Christian will take a deep breath when something or someone in traffic irks them, count to 10, calm down and thank the Lord for the opportunity to pray for someone who may well be in need.
 
Have a blessed day and weekend, everyone!
 
Marc McIntosh