What Part of "STOP" Don't We Understand?

If you visit Colorado Springs or move here, you may be surprised to see more bad driving than you left behind. Wouldn’t you think a city teeming with evangelical organizations and churches would stand out as a model of safe, courteous driving? But Colorado Springs, often called “Saints’ Roost,” “Wheaton of the West,” or “New Jerusalem,” seems to be “City of Reckless Abandon” when drivers take to the streets.
Maybe drivers are blinded by our bright sun (we have more than 300 sunny days per year), and can’t see a STOP sign when they come to one. So many drivers roll through STOP signs here I wonder if the brake shops went out of business.
Traffic lights pose another test many drivers fail. True or false: Red means stop; green means go? The answer may be elementary, my dear Watson, but I don’t think any Watsons live in Colorado Springs.
Speed is another issue. School zones post a 20 mph speed limit, but when I do 20, some cars pass me doing at least 40 mph.
One more thing, turn signals must be expensive optional equipment in Colorado Springs? It seems very few cars here have them. Or if they do, drivers don’t want to expend the energy required to use them.
You may be thinking, All those careless drivers are non-Christians. Christians obey traffic laws. How would you like to buy a choice piece of property on a nearby landfill? Many of the violators display a fish symbol or a bumper sticker with a Christian message.
When a “Christian” driver speeds past me, I observe, “There goes another flying fish.”
Maybe your city resembles mine, but I saw more courteous driving in Chicago, where I lived before I moved to Colorado Springs in 1995.
I believe Christians should obey the law if they truly want to honor the Lord. How we drive is often a reflection of what drives us. If we are driven by anger or ego or impatience, we may roll through STOP signs, ignore traffic lights, speed down streets, and fail to use signal lights. If we are driven by love for God and others, we will drive courteously and lawfully.
You have heard the adage, “What you do speaks so loud I can’t hear what you say.” If we claim to be Christians, let’s conduct ourselves appropriately on our streets and highways. No one should be able to say, “How you drive speaks so loud I can’t hear what you say.”