red light, green light.

A few nights ago, I was driving to my friend's house when I hit a red light on Goldenwest Street. I was the first person to come to a stop and slowly people around me stopped at the red light too. There was no one in front of me so I was staring directly at the light. I watched the left turn lanes go and knew it was my turn to go next, so I watched the light, anticipating it to turn green. However, instead of it changing colors, the light of the other lanes at the intersection turned green again, skipping the sequence of my lanes turn to go. I sat there already feeling like I had waited a long time for the light to change and here I was waiting even longer and confused as to what was wrong with the light. I looked over to my left and the women in the car beside me looked at me and shrugged her shoulders. I thought “good, she’s just as confused as I am”. I started to grow a little frustrated because I had somewhere to be and couldn’t make it through the light. I immediately thought it “must be broken”, “something is wrong”, “maybe I can make a right turn even though I’m in the middle lane”. Right away my brain went into problem solving mode trying to figure out what was wrong and why I wasn’t getting to go like the people driving in front of me. That’s when the Lord illustrated a quick analogy for me.

I felt like He said:

Sometimes in life you are sitting at a red light. You feel like you are unable to move. Stopped. Waiting. Frustrated. As you watch other people around you go through green light, after green light, after green light, picking up speed as they go. You think to yourself: “Why am I stuck at this red light?! I have places to be, by a certain time, with a specific destination in mind. I need to go.”

When we come to a red light in life, we say “God why am I the only one waiting, why am I in this season of ____, why can’t I go forward, everyone around me is moving fast, everyone around me is getting to their next destination & I am just sitting here waiting for the light to turn green”.

But the Lord responds to us and says, ya know what...that is okay.

You may be sitting, waiting at the red light as other people go through the green light. Other people may be moving quicker than you or getting to their next destination faster. You may feel like that person is doing way better in life than you...BUT the thing is, you’re at that red light, and you’re not going to be at that red light forever. That light is red right now and it may skip a sequence of lights until it gets to the next one, but we all know that that light is not going to stay red. The same thing goes for all those people going through the green lights. These people have definitely hit a red light at some point or another in life. They’re not constantly hitting green light, after green light, after green light...they hit red lights too.

I think as Christians (and I know this is true for myself) we tend to look at the people around us, whether it be those from our church, school, friends, or even in the media and think they seem to be moving a lot faster than us. The truth though is that they have indeed hit lots of red lights too...even if we don’t necessarily see it for ourselves.

We live in a world where it's natural for a lot of us to compare ourselves to the people around us. I’ll be honest, I do! I’ll see some cool, trendy Christian Instagram influencer and I'm like wow he/she just seems so in tune with the Lord and they must never do anything wrong or experience any trials, they're moving so much faster than me. Or I'm in a season of life where I feel stuck, like there’s no way to get out, and while I’m in that season I see a friend who is growing closer to God and seems as if they have it all figured out and I become jealous and confused as to why I have to be at the red light when they get to be at the green.

I started thinking though and it’s like the game we used to play when we were younger: red light green light. God yells “green light” and we goooooo until he yells “RED LIGHT” and we stop.

We don’t know why He has suddenly stopped us, but we trust Him and trust that there is purpose in us stopping at this specific moment. Maybe it’s so we can help someone else who is stuck at the red light behind us catch up and get back in the race. Maybe there’s someone who is able to go through the green light at the intersection ahead of you because you are stopped at your intersection. We don’t know the exact reason the Lord has stopped us, but there is a reason.

Although we don’t know why we are stopped at a red light, we know the red light means to wait & that’s what we must do until the Lord believes we are ready again to keep moving and go ahead to the next light.

In the game red light green light, the players don’t get to call out whether they are to move at a green, yellow, or red light, it is the caller who gets to do that. In this case: yes, that caller is God and as we all run the race, He is the one who will sometimes speed us up, pushing us to go farther, or slow us down, when He believes it’s necessary.

For me, I know that I get caught up going 100,000 mph through life and I’ve noticed that when I do this, the Lord will stop me for a second and make me realize I need to take a breath, lean into Him, be more present in the moment and not the future, and look for what He is trying to teach me in that period of feeling stopped, stuck, and at a red light.

I used to grow upset when I would find myself at a point like this in life. Everything would be going great and suddenly I’d stop, feeling confused and unsure of what the Lord wanted me to do. It wasn’t until this past year in college that I realized at times like this I must lean into the Lord and seek Him more than I ever have, so that I may draw near to Him again. I believe that this is why we sometimes go through trials. So that the Lord can remind us that He is good and the only way we can find freedom, truth, and life. The times when I feel I’m at my lowest, going through something difficult, or trying to figure out what the Lord wants for me, THAT is when it is most important that I seek Him with everything left within me. The Lord uses these times to draw us back to Him.

Whether you feel like you’re going through green lights or red lights in life right now, I encourage you to seek God 110% no matter what your feelings are towards Him or His Word at this very moment. When we are at a red light and struggling in life it can be hard to go directly to the Word, but that is what will bring us back to Jesus and put us back on track. In the same way, when we are at a green light and life may be great and moving swiftly, we still need to be going directly to God’s word to guide us and continue to fill us with life & energy, reminding us of who first brought us out of the darkness and into the light.

Summer is too close to being over:( but keep living alive + spontaneous, seeking the Lord in all seasons of your life, whether you feel like you’re moving through green lights or red lights right now!

A verse that I have been loving lately:

“At the right time, I, the LORD, will make it happen” (Isaiah 60:22 NLT)

Thanks for reading!

xoxo,

b.

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