Wednesday, 17 June 2009

• It's a Jeep thing...

  I think it's safe to say that if you're driving in Metro-Detroit (and likely any major metropolitan area), a turn signal is not a request to other drivers to let you over, but instead a warning that you're moving over regardless of their feelings.  Which is why I always laugh at, and perhaps pity a little, those people who obviously don't know this. 

  Unfortunately, and by the same standard, if you're trying to exit a parking lot or side street onto a major road undergoing construction, turn signals are useless.  No one is likely to be happy about letting you out into traffic, and that rare unhappy person is probably only one in ten.  In this instance, your blinker is just one more annoyance ticking away along with your clock as you sit and wait as your hour wastes away.

  Well, since I've been driving my Jeep, I've noticed a very strange phenomenon: people in other Jeeps are more courteous to me.  They actually slow down to give me room as I merge into their lane, or they stop in the road to let me exit my parking lot.  And Jeep people smile to each other, as if owning a Jeep makes us all kindred spirits.  I was cleaning a plant last week at the back of my Jeep and this older gentleman pulls into a spot kiddie-corner to me and as he walks into his office, gives me this companionable smile accompanied by the upward chin-nod.

  Even in what we call our vehicles we're different.  If you asked me what kind of car I drive, I'd say a Jeep...and I've never met somebody who says something like, "Oh...I have a Laredo."   No, we call them by their brand name and give specifics only if asked. 

  I never did this before; I never said, "I drive a Chevy."  Why?  Because there are a lot of Chevrolet models on the road and specifics would be demanded.  Then again, there also a lot of Jeep models out there and we still mostly persist in calling them by their brand name.

  All this makes me really like Jeeps, and I'm actually driving better.  Because they've been courteous to me, I'm now courteous to everyone.  Additionally, I've begun looking around at newer models for when my current Jeep is retired to the trails.  Chrysler really ought to capitalize on this brand-loyalty, because I didn't get this crazy comraderie  when I drove my Impala...and there are almost as many Impalas on the road now as Jeeps. 

  We Christians can be like this, and if you look just a little, I'm sure we all have evidence of this behaviour in our lives.  We've all met that person whom we sense an immediate connection with only to then find out later they're Christian.   And when someone is kind to us, we usually reciprocate by extending that kindness to others.  If we can continue being like this and to grow in it, not only would more Christians continue being "loyal to the brand", but this kindness would draw more "buyers". 

  I always saw the following verse not just in the context of the Tower of Babel, but as a general law of society.  Full-on unity in the Church surely can accomplish amazing things, regardless of model-type (a.k.a. denomination), year, or even geography.  Especially if what we unite for is the spreading of the example of Jesus.  

  The Lord said, "If as one people speaking the same language they have begun to do this, then nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them."  Genesis 11:6, NIV

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