I recently changed jobs, and went from living 2 minutes from the school where I worked, to being an hour away on a good day. I’ve never lived more than 10 minutes away from my place of work and school (other than the 2 years of preschool ages 2-4) until now.
I have never minded time in my car, I used to drive home for weekends usually once a month in college, and had a 4 hour drive to myself both directions. Last summer, I took a solo road trip up to Seattle from Bakersfield, and while the trip up there was slow and fun, the trip home happened earlier than I was planning, and I was in my car for 1100 miles without stopping for anything more than gas and food.
There is peace and simplicity when I am in the car.
I definitely yell at semi’s that pass each other, and get frustrated with bad drivers (I make too many references to Driving Miss Daisy), but the vast majority of the time, I enjoy being alone in my car. I sing weird harmonies, or try to sing all of the parts at once and make myself crack up. I listen to audio books on longer trips, I run through random scenarios that will probably never happen, and I have imaginary conversations with people in my life because of said scenarios that I will most likely never have in real life. I’m a little bit more external in my processing, and those hours in my car have helped me process and work through far more than I realize until after the fact.
I also have some of my best conversations with God in the car.
I tend to use distraction as my best method of avoiding dealing with hard things. I am chronically busy between finishing grad school, working two jobs, training for a half marathon, participating in several ministries and trying to find time to blog with any frequency. But when I’m in my car, I can’t send emails, work on papers, work, mentor or minister. It’s just me, with the jumble of things I’d rather not deal with, and God.
I really was expecting to hate this commute. And I admit, the hour in both directions really kills any ability to get things done in the evenings when I finally do get home. I do want to move closer, because a 15 minute commute makes scheduling my life much easier.
But even with all of that, I treasure that hour in the mornings in the car.
I spend more than half of it talking to the Lord, praying for people, conflicts, and relationships. For people I work with, minister with and those that just randomly are on my heart. For my family and my friends as they go into their lives. For myself that I would be more aware of God in the everyday hustle and grind and have peace and direction. For the people I work with in outreach and the community I work in. For the family I will one day have.
Honestly, I’m not sure anything exists that can center you so fully before you encounter traffic, work problems or the little annoying things that come (and add up) with having to get from point A to point B and deal with people. I definitely still am guilty of yelling at semi’s, and people on the road who are annoying to me. I don’t always get into work feeling nearly as zen as I was 30 minutes before. I don’t even go into each morning looking forward to the praying. Sometimes, I procrastinate on it, and get maybe 5 minutes in of hastily mumbled well wishes for my “regulars”.
I can say confidently, though, that my favorite mornings are the ones spent with the Lord, watching the sun rise on this dusty and beautiful valley. It’s definitely not the sunrise that makes the morning (as anyone who knows me can attest to the fact that I’m not very often a willing participant in mornings), but rather time that could be considered wasted, is set aside and guarded as time to spend with the Lord.
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