I am on the freeway about 15 years ago between teaching philosophy in Denton and arriving home in Arlington. A couple of lanes over and a few hundred yards behind me I notice two vehicles alternately racing in front of each other and stopping short, a 3-lane clearing moving with them as cars like mine seek to avoid becoming collateral damage. The rolling cage fight of road rage finally passes me and goes out of sight ahead. About a minute later, I pass where one vehicle has rearended the other, both eerily abandoned in the middle of the absurdly wide freeway, drivers nowhere to be seen.
The core of the Lord’s Prayer, what some call the Model Prayer, in a paraphrase: “Father, we will live today for your name, kingdom, and will. So we ask and trust you to take care of the things we would have done for ourselves: providing our basic needs, repairing the messes we have made, overcoming what we would face in the tests of this world” (Matthew 6:9-13).
I have no idea how the angry exchange erupted or ultimately resolved. But it does seem safe to assume that neither driver-turned-fighter arrived at the destination intended when they began their separate excursions.
Believers do not have to be angry to abandon the real purpose of our journey in the middle of the freeway. Being caught up with daily needs, overwhelming obligations, or constant crises is all it takes for our faith to become isolated from the people around us and distracted from our destination. The first step in avoiding a detour or derailment is to remember our destination—seeing his name hallowed, his kingdom realized, his will done. Road rage isn’t a priority when all you want is to get home.
This week, may our journey remain bound toward his name hallowed, his kingdom realized, his will done.