I must confess that when I see the blond chick, in her red sports car, getting ticketed at the side of the road, I drive by with a very smug smile on my face. The "girls just wanna have fun" crowd just got nailed. It doesn't take long on the gendarme force to learn the phoniness of that flirty wink and silly grin with which ditsy girls hope to avoid the traffic citation. I used to ride along with the sheriff, and believe me that approach only fires the constabulary ire.
The driver who whips his car out from behind me and maneuvers right in front of me, only to jam on his brakes for the stoplight, stirs primal emotions from my gut. I am mature enough not to lash out with road rage. I don't even carry a gun. But I confess to another moment of that smug smile when I see that same car caught in a slow pocket of traffic when I make the next signal and he doesn't. Okay, shame on me. It has to be another disguise of sinful pride, but it feels so good. Yes, I know, there are many sins that "feel" so good for the moment.
The broadest smile of smugness crosses my face when I see miles of parking lot traffic on the freeway headed in the opposite direction. There are times and days that everyone must know when there are too many cars and not enough road. When one has employment that requires his presence at certain hours, and his home is remove from that locale by several miles, there is nothing he can do about this flow (or rather lack thereof) of traffic. It's naughty of me, I know, but I feel smug as I speed along on the opposite side.
If I were truly spiritually mature, I would pray for their growth in patience. I might pray that they will have a nice dinner date with their significant other. But all I can think is how glad I am that I'm not caught in that traffic horror. I'm thinking that we may be at our most vulnerable show of spiritual immaturity when we are driving. Or am I only embarrassing myself?
