My neighbor, the one who loves nature and Golden retrievers, says he is going to write a book and title it, “We Used to Stop on Yellow.” He laments how we demand instant gratification in ways that impact the earth for ill and disregard the people around us. He has built a wonderland of a backyard for his grandchildren, complete with a treehouse and swinging bridge. There is a pond and lush greenery. He and his family also make regular pilgrimages to a rustic family house on the coast. He is a modern day Thoreau if ever there was one. He is never in a hurry, and his speech, his words, are deliberate and worth leaning in to hear.
I like being around this man. If he sees me in my yard, he always pulls his car in my driveway and stops to talk. He has never once said “no” when we’ve asked for his help. He has crawled under my house to help unclog a kitchen drain. He has loaned us his truck. He has cared for our pets on short notice. He is that kind of person: the kind who stops on yellow, mindful of those on the other side of the intersection, unwilling to endanger someone else for the sake of efficiency and speed.
He is, I am afraid, a rare breed – one we might need to put on the endangered species list. Fewer and fewer people stop on yellow. More and more, we all step on the gas and roar through life, putting others at risk, missing out on the scenery all around, getting nowhere, but getting there faster.
Have you noticed in the Gospels that Jesus stops a lot? He is interrupted over and over again, and over and over again he stops to attend to the ones who hail him down, grab at his garment, push through the crowd with their children, bring their needy friends to him for help. Even when the tension is rising and Jerusalem looms large on the horizon, Jesus stops on yellow, putting real people ahead of his God-given, ultimate mission. I suppose his knowledge that his mission will be fulfilled allows him the ability to meander, take detours to people’s homes for meals, heal the sick and allow time for his disciples to follow and learn.
I wonder if we might have enough confidence that God will complete the good work that God has started in us so that we could stop on yellow instead of running red lights.
We live with texts, tweets, Instagram, Snapchat and so much that is brief, immediate and often not very thoughtful. We are rarely focused. We are only partially engaged with whatever, or whoever, is right before us. We create hashtags for events so that we can give a running, real-time commentary in order to show whoever is watching how clever or funny or right we are. We can disparage the speaker for being out of touch, for getting a fact wrong or for being insensitive. We can send #amens, revealing our agreement with some esteemed person. Either way, it is about us and it prevents us from being fully present. We don’t stop on yellow.
And yet, discipleship is about following Jesus on the Way and we can’t follow very well if we aren’t paying attention. Imagine if we were in the crowds while Jesus taught on the mount or the plain today. Would we create Stopping on yellow #preachitJesus? Would we listen with an ear for what we might tweet or post? Would we clamor for a selfie with the disciples? Maybe create a Vine? In so doing, how much would we miss of Jesus?
I believe we should leverage technology for all it is worth. We should use every means possible to share the Good News, grow community and build up the Body. However, I also believe we should attend fully to what is right in front of us. We should be mindful that following on the Way demands that we keep our eyes closely trained on Jesus – because he stops a lot and if we aren’t paying attention we might walk past him, or worse, run right over him.
Grace and peace,
Jill
