Dents, Flaws, & Character Development: Exhibits B & C

I made the following two "decisions" during my senior year in high school.  The first was near the beginning, and the other near the end.   I'm sorry that they happened, but the affects of both have had a lifetime of influence.  They have haunted and niggled at my conscience as reminders to be safe and do the right thing.

Exhibit B: Learning the Hard Way!

It was a Friday evening in October, and I was about to learn a valuable lesson – the hard way.  

​I had recently turned 17 and was driving the family car.  I was on my way to pick up a date for a local high school football game.  I had two options to get where I was going.  The interstate was a bit longer.  The city streets were shorter and more direct, but they had stoplights and more traffic.

I chose the city streets.

As I was driving past a busy shopping center, I approached a major intersection.  There were four lanes of traffic with a center turn lane in the middle.  Cars were turning into and coming out of the shopping center and other nearby businesses.  Traffic was congested and fairly chaotic.  I was about 10 cars from the traffic signal, when I looked ahead and saw that the light was green, and traffic was starting to move.   What I failed to notice was that the car directly in front of me was not moving.  At least until I helped it.  So, at 30 mph and with brakes squealing, I plowed into the car in front of me and rearranged the design of both vehicles. 

Repaired & two years later.

​Fortunately, no one was hurt.  Both vehicles were eventually repaired, but I was to learn a valuable driving lesson.   I learned to “anticipate and look at ALL of the flow of traffic around me - ALL the time”.   To this day, the reminder persists.  I still find myself subconsciously gauging the distance of the car in front of me whenever traffic slows.   A little reminder to "pay attention" flashes in my brain. Because, I really don't want to make that mistake again.

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​​There was also a “life lesson” that I learned that day as well.  It was this.  “Do not get so focused on things down the road that you don’t pay attention to what is happening in front of you.” 

Hmmm?   For a planner, that sounds kind of important.

Exhibit C: A Wrench in My Life

​In high school, I did not have a good self-image.  I didn’t like a lot of things about myself.  I didn’t like my name. I didn’t like my appearance, and I particularly didn’t like my size.  I was small and I was insecure.  I was also a "second-generation Christian".    I believed in God - mostly because my parents did.   I had made a "profession of faith", but I didn't really know what I believed.  So, I was compliant, and sought to passively blend in to my surroundings.  I became adept at "hedging my bets".  "Riding the fence."

My best friends were from church.  I did social stuff with them.  But, because we lived across town from church, none of my church friends went to the same school that I did. I was able to keep my schoolmates  separate from my church friends.  While I didn't do anything egregious with either group, I did try to blend in at school.  The easiest way to do that was to learn to use swear words.   I could swear at school and then turn it off when I was at home or church.   Most of the time I kept a tight monitor on the situations.  

But, one time, my desire to be accepted by my peers  went beyond foul language - and put a wrench in my life - literally.

I took a lot of shop classes, especially my senior year. I liked the “hands-on learning” of shop class.  When we needed tools to work on a project, we would check them out.  The check-out system was rather porous.  It was more of an honor system. “Lifting” a tool, became like a “rite of passage”.  It was a dare and eventually it became “my turn”.  So, when I finished making my metal toolbox for the class.  I stole a pipe wrench, put it in the toolbox, and walked out of class and straight home.  Yup!  I felt horrible.   But, I felt affirmed by my peers.  
 
Not much later, I graduated and walked out of the school for good - well not quite.  While I was finding my way after high school, God was at work in my heart.  And, that pipe wrench burned a hole in my conscience.  I was convicted of my sin.  I knew I needed to “make things right”.  So, about a year later, when I was back in town, I bought a brand new pipe wrench, drove back to the school, and asked to meet the principal.  I admitted what I had done and said that I was sorry.  I told him how God had convicted me, and, then I handed him the new pipe wrench.   

​After he picked up his jaw, he thanked me, and off I went feeling tons lighter in spirit. ​

The Reminder

​I still have the toolbox, and the wrench I stole.  I open a drawer and see it from time to time.  When I do, it reminds me of the work God did years ago and to keep "accounts" short.  Interestingly, a clearer conscience, and clarity in my “values and beliefs” gave my self-image a boost in the process.  ​More on that next - as I continue grappling with a cluster of life-changing events that happened the year after high school - which I now call "Plugging in the GPS".

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Next Time:  ​Road Closed.  But, It Sure Looked Open!