March 5, 2010
Taking the Time to Make a Difference
Guidance in the fog, ahead of us, and after us
BY PAUL R. LEINGANG
(Listen to Paul read this column | Weekly podcast)
Maybe you have driven along a major highway in the fog. If you have, maybe you have had similar thoughts to mine.
U.S. Highway 41 runs north and south through my part of Indiana. It’s an old highway, linking Chicago and Florida. It is neither an interstate highway nor a local road: it has some of the best and some of the worst features of both extremes.
One day on a foggy day on my morning drive, I began to realize how important it is to be able to see the car in front of me. Or at least the tail lights of the car or truck or whatever is in front of me.
U.S. Highway 41 has curves and bends and limited access — but much more access from the side than an interstate highway has. There are stoplights and intersections, and places where drivers are not supposed to cross over the median — but they do anyway.
If you drive too fast, you come up quickly on the car or truck in front of you. If you drive too slowly in the fog, the lights of the vehicle in front fade away into the distance and you feel all alone on your journey.
The trick is to adapt to the speed of the rest of the traffic, if possible, and to work together. It takes some faith to trust the driver in front of you – hoping he or she has the sense to maintain a safe distance from the next vehicle, and so on and so on. You can’t see it, but the idea comes to mind of a string of vehicles, each within eyesight of the one in front, each with the knowledge that someone else is following, like a decade of really big rosary beads.
This image to me calls to mind the generations in my family.
My parents gave me guidance in my faith, praying at meals and at bedtime, taking me to church when I was small and expecting me to follow along in later life.
I can’t say I could always see far ahead. I can’t say that I always kept up. But their light never faded.
I hope and pray that my own children can see enough of us, their parents, on the highway ahead, to know that their mother and father are following a path that is true, and one that has taken earlier generations to their destination.
My parents bore witness too to the commitment required in married life, and I know they hoped that I would follow their example. In my early years, I began to follow the road toward priesthood, and I know they were happy with that possibility.
“This is my boy, who is going to be a priest,” my father would say to people, introducing me.
When travel plans changed for me, I worried about what he thought. Until one day, many miles along another highway, he said with the exact same degree of pride, “This is my boy; he’s getting married next month.”
My parents bore witness to the vocation of every baptized person, to respond to the call — no matter what the direction.
Their light ahead remained constant, not too far to be lost in the fog, not too close to give interference, but just enough to give guidance and surety. I knew I was traveling in the right direction.
* * *
Our brother Jesus is the way, the truth and the life. In much of our lifetime, we seem to spend our energy trying to follow along the way. Just as important, though, is the challenge to give guidance to those who follow us.
Take the time to look at the road ahead, and those who have traveled there before us. Who guided you? Were there times when their guidance was harder to see?
Take the time to look in the mirror, to make sure those who are following are still within eyesight.
Even on a foggy day, your lights are visible to those who are near you, your children, your neighbors, those who look up to you.
Take the time to set a pace that works well with our common journey. It will make difference.
Comments are welcome at office@cfm.org or the Christian Family Movement, P.O. Box 925, Evansvsille, IN 47706-0925