when the left is actually right

 

If you are worried that this post is going to be political, you can relax.  It is not.  I'm simply referring to my experience in England of renting and driving a car.  (And after this post, I plan to move on from my references to my England trip, so please indulge me one last time.)

For the first several days of our visitwe stuck to London and utilized the various public transportation modes, but we also wanted to venture off to other places - which required that we rent a car. Simple enough - except for one niggling factor. Brits drive on the left side of the road. To be honest, I was a little bit anxious about how well I would do. Turns out, not too bad. Only a few other drivers were traumatized. And a few pedestrians. But they should heal up just fine. And there was that one sheep.
  

Driving on left was fairly simple, but there a few challenges. Like all the roundabouts. I'm guess we did like 6,000 of them. I just had to tell myself that traffic was coming from the right, not the left. Car parks (a.k.a. parking lots) were a bit of a challenge as I would forget which side of the lane to take. But there were some bigger challenges. Like trying to remember which side of the car to climb into. That took far more mental concentration than you might think. I also struggled with right turns, always feeling like a car would be coming behind me in the lane I was about to cross. I had to remind myself to watch for the cars coming towards me instead. I also had a bit of a problem of drifting off the road to the left as I wasn't used to have the rest of my car to my left and not to my right. And the fact that the roads were very, very narrow with little three inch curbs on the sides instead of shoulders upped the made it worse.

But the truth of the matter is that I was probably a better driver in England than I am here at home. Why? Because I was on high alert and not merely going through the motions. I was really paying attention. But that got me thinking about some of the things I tend to do on mental "autopilot."

For instance, my marriage. We've been married now for 30 years, and it is easy to just take our relationship for granted. I completely trust her. I know she will be there. I am very used to all the ways she contributes to our relationship. So sometimes I don't give things the thought or attention they need and deserve. But the same could be true in any relationship.

And then there's my faith. I've been going to church for decades. Sunday mornings are just ingrained into me. So I can show up without giving it much thought. And the same with personal Bible reading. It's a habit - and it's easy to do without paying much attention. I can read, pray and then just go on my way.

So what about you? I've just mentioned two areas where I can become mindless, but perhaps you can think of others. Where do you do things without really even having to think about them? Where do you need to be more intentional, focused and attentive? Maybe it's your relationships, maybe it's your faith, maybe it is something else, and maybe it's time to "switch sides" of the road - and to get on the right, meaning correct, side of things.

 (BTW - the above picture is not of me or of the car I rented.  Just wanted to be clear