We haven’t received all that much snow this winter, but whenever I have had to travel, the snow has come in piles!  Out of the last five trips I’ve made to either Toronto or Ottawa, I’ve traveled through a snow storm each time at least one way.

I know it’s Canada and winter, and snow is one of our best GNP’s (Gross National Product) but still, every time I travel?  Come on!  You can pretty well track our snow fall by my travel plans this year.  They’re lucky down in Florida that I don’t have a trip planned to the sunshine state.

An hour before returning from my latest trip, the snow started falling.  It seemed pretty light so I wasn’t worried.  But when I finished my meeting and went out to my car, all the cars looked the same.  They were all white with about three inches of snow on them.

I picked my car out of the line up, opened the door and reached for the snow brush.  It was one of those snow days that when you finished brushing the snow off your car, the part you first brushed off needed another brushing.  You could just keep going around your car brushing off the snow.

Once I got going, I realized the roads were going to be slippery – and you know what that means:  Everyone who can’t drive is out on the roads trying to audition for that TV show, “Canada’s Worst Driver”!  I saw a few that I think would be good candidates.

The highway was packed, visibility was poor and then we got diverted off the highway.  I found out later there was a 60 – 80 car pile-up we had to detour around.  It was during that detour that I realized how conditioned we are to just follow.

It was one lane, stop and go, bumper to bumper.  Everyone just started following the car ahead.  We traveled for an hour like this.  Then I noticed a sign indicating a turn back to the main highway.

When I got to the corner, the cars ahead of me didn’t make the turn.  They kept on the single lane road like lemmings, just following the car ahead, without thinking about where they were going.

I looked in my rearview mirror as I drove the route back to the highway.  No one followed me.  I was the only one who made the turn; everyone just kept going straight.  When I got to the highway, there were no other cars on it.  I had three lanes to myself for about twenty minutes.

It was like the other cars were looking for some official to direct them back to the major route.  I kind of chuckled to myself as I sped down the highway, thinking that there were people still traveling bumper to bumper when they could be back on the highway traveling 80 -100 kph faster.  I made it home much sooner than I’d originally thought.

Here’s the thing: It can seem like the right thing to follow what everyone else is doing.  We blend in and it’s comfortable.  But often following the majority keeps us from the better plan God has for us.  We need to keep checking the signs God gives us in His Word to get back on His path and not stay stuck on a detour.

That’s life!

Paul

Question: What do you do to keep from following everyone else?  Leave your comment below.