Signpost: Yield

This morning, as I was driving my son to daycare, I passed a flashing yield sign as I pulled onto a familiar boulevard. It calls my attention back a year. You see, in September 2008, I was involved in a traffic accident at a yield sign just opposite the sign I passed this morning. On my way home from work, I was waiting for right-of-way traffic to clear out before beginning the last stretch of my long commute. As I sat there, watching the traffic pass me by, I couldn't wait to get home to my wife, who was 8 1/2 months pregnant with our first child. I had just begun to move forward as I realized that the traffic had cleared when a monstrous black truck peeled around the corner (almost certainly illegally) and onto the road I was about to enter. Had I not been moving slowly and glancing over my shoulder frequently, the driver may have hit me. He was moving quickly. I could have been killed. As it turns out, I was hit anyway. The car behind me was not cautious. The driver, an uninsured single mother with child in tow, slammed right into the back of me when I reapplied my brake to avoid the truck.

Yield! Sometimes I get to moving very quickly (in traffic and in life) and I need to remember to yield. To yield means to allow someone who has the right-of-way through. In the spiritual life, we must yield to God, who has rights over all creation and over our lives. When we follow our plans against His, we do not yield, and there may be a collision.

Steps in yielding:

1. Slow down or stop if necessary to check for right-of-way traffic. Before going on my pilgrim way, have I asked God what His plans are? Have I discerned? Have I looked to see if the road is clear?

2. Proceed cautiously. Most people ignore the "cautious" part. Caution! Do we move forward with caution that even if the road seems clear and God's plans do not seem to conflict with our own, appearances could deceive us?

I think if we would yield more often, and yield properly, we would all move down that worldwide network of pilgrim roads with greater ease. Traffic would be a breeze. Our plans would go well.

"At all times bless the Lord God, and ask him to make all your paths straight and to grant success to all your endeavors and plans." -Tobit 4:19

If we ask the Lord to grant success to our plans, we are already considering His plans in our own. We must make room for what it is He intends for our lives. Indeed, God only wills something as good as or better than we will for ourselves. If our plans conflict with His, it is time to reevaluate. It is time to obey His Will and not follow our own.

Remember this Advent to yield. It may save your life.

His Servant and Yours,

Micah
Feast of St. Ambrose