I was driving in our downtown area a few weeks ago and happened upon a scene that reaffirmed that people know right from wrong and what we are or aren't supposed to do. The issue we face in our society today is more about people making the right choice and actually doing what we know is the right thing to do. In our "old city" downtown there is one main four-way intersection that is managed by a traffic light. On down main street there are a couple of four-way stop sign intersections, yet this one intersection has enough traffic to merit a red light. Well on this particular day, as I neared the intersection of Main Street and Cumberland Avenue, I noticed that the traffic light was blinking red and traffic seemed to have come to a complete stop. I was headed to a meeting and knew this could create a delay if the problem wasn't soon remedied. Just as that thought was crossing my mind traffic began flowing in a very rhythmic fashion. Without anyone saying a word the commuters began following the rules of a four-way stop intersection with cars taking turns in a clockwise rotational fashion. A smile landscaped my face as I thought about how in the midst of adversity a group of complete strangers, all with their own individual agenda, worked in harmony with each other to assure traffic didn't come to a complete stop waiting on the problem to be fixed or the arrival of a law enforcement officer to direct traffic in the same fashion as the four way stop effort that was being employed. It was comforting to see that in the face of conflict a certain level of "right" thinking prevailed.
Why did this simple gesture of right over might grab my attention? I guess it was the fact that in an adverse setting, one where individual agendas (my meeting and not wanting to be late) could have been the driving factor in the decision about who goes next, this communal group of transit neighbors made a decision to cooperate and follow a standard rule of driving in a setting where the rule was not specifically in place. No big deal you're saying to yourself. Well maybe, yet in this world we are living in now where the emphasis is all on "me" and my agenda, it was refreshing to see the cooperative whole surpassing the egocentric choice of what is best for self on full display.
As a society, everyone knows right from wrong. My three-year-old granddaughter knows when she is about to make the wrong choice, it just boils down to what she ultimately chooses to do. In this situation, it would have been easy for someone to have been thinking, "I've got to get to my meeting, so I'm going next regardless of where I am in the rotation because I'm going to be late if I don't!" That's fair, isn't it? Possibly nobody else in queue had somewhere they had to be and thus would be completely fine with the one taking precedence over the whole. Right?
I'm not exactly sure where the view of the individual surpassed the betterment of the whole, but on this particular day I was encouraged by this simple gesture of selflessness. I challenge you today to put the wants or needs of someone else in front of your own agenda. A simple act of kindness, buffered by good manners and good morals can go a long way. Think it doesn't matter? I beg to differ. A random, simple act of right thinking with selfless motives made a difference to me on my morning commute, the difference you can make in another person's life today is waiting to see who goes next?
"If anyone, then, knows the good they ought to do and doesn’t do it, it is sin for them." James 4:17 NIV
Coach Carter
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