Right-of-way

An article by Don Quixote    2 Comments

I’ve been a fan of board games ever since I learned they existed. I forget how young I was, but I recall one of my first board games (though it was really more of a card game) that I just got hooked on was Mille Bornes. Mille Bornes, that’s French for a 1000 miles. It’s really a very simple and clever game. Players take turns playing cards trying to be the first to get to 1000 miles (thought is most likely kilometers). Players can either play distance cards, helpful cards or hurtful cards.

Some of the nasty things that you can do to your opponents are give them a flat tire, have them run out of gas, get into an accident, slap a speed limit on them, or give them a dreaded STOP card. Not to worry, there are spare tires, extra gas cans, repair cards, remove speed limit cards, and green lights. However, that’s the cheesy way out. In the game there are 4 special cards: Driving Ace (no accidents), Puncture Proof Tires (no flats), Extra Gas Tank (can’t run out of gas) and the best one, Right of Way (no limits, no stops). But if you’re clever, you’ll hold those cards back and wait until your opponent tries to do something nasty, then you’ll counter it with one of those special cards and shout out, “coup-fourres”, which means something vicious in French I’m sure.

Right-of-way has always been an interesting concept to me. That someone else has the right to go before you do. Having lived in Fort Wayne now for years, I’m beginning to wonder if this isn’t some foreign concept. Perhaps it’s common place all over, but I swear that no one knows what it means. They have no concept of yield, red lights, 4-way stops or anything else where they have to let someone else go before them.

Driving to work this morning I watched a car turn left in front of a speeding van because he didn’t want to have to wait. Did the van slow down? Not one iota, in fact I think he was hoping to hit the guy if for no other reason than to show him that he had the right of way. It’s everywhere. Cars getting off of an on ramp refuse to acknowledge the YIELD sign. People who are traveling the road refuse to change lanes because they shouldn’t have to, the other person is supposed to yield.

We refuse to give ground, we refuse to relinquish our rights to anything; we assert them at every step. If it isn’t our right, well it should be, so we’re going to take it anyways.

We all do it. We are all guilty of the same thing. How many times have you’ve been waiting at a light to turn when the arrow changes, but you’re tired of waiting so you decide to go anyway even though the light has turned red and make lanes of traffic wait on you? Or the light turns green and you gun it just to keep folks like those mentioned above from turning.

My problem isn’t so much with driving as it is with my spiritual life. That same attitude continues over into my spirit. Of knowing when to yield and when not to, to always remind myself that God has the Right of Way in my life, and that I have no rights of my own, that I need to give ground to those around me. I know that Russell is found of saying that we “wrestle not against flesh and blood,” but I disagree with that.

We do wrestle against flesh and blood; our own. We wrestle with desire to assert ourselves before others, to take on more worth than is our place to give. We wrestle with the things that we would rather do instead of what we need to do. We are in a constant struggle with our flesh over who has the right of way.

It’s time for a coup-fourres.

I am reminded that we are to be living sacrifices, and I know that I am the first one to hop up off the table at the first chance I get. I want to learn to give wholly of myself to God and to those around me. I want to yield, I want to give up my right of way.

(As a side note, never play Mille Bornes with Michelle. I don’t care how many times you shuffle the cards, how you cut them, what have you, she will get at least two of the special cards in her opening deal – one of them is usually the driving ace).