Road Rage

     Coming to California and driving on its roads, it almost made me feel like I was home-- just exorbitantly hotter and drier.  Why I say that is because the drivers on the road rival or even surpass, sometimes, the curmudgeons I see in Virginia.  I honestly feel like the California heat does something to change the countenances of men.

They're quite annoying, those cars.

     Every morning of a terrifically bright weekday morning and every evening of a terrifically bright weekday dusk, I'm usually sitting inside of a humble silver 2011 Toyota Corolla on the I-5.  On all sides of me are cars, waiting to reach their destinations wherever it may be.  A small stretch of a half mile on the road I drive on may take around 10 minutes to cross-- the collective frustration and anger is seen rather visibly by the drivers on this highway-- the volume and accidents build up a rage, destroying any sign of humanity (temporarily) in these diligent breadwinners.

     The traffic disables one to arrive home at the time she would like to arrive, but as the ubiquitous French proverb goes, "c'est la vie."  With a gargantuan density of drivers on the road at such a given time, it's a great big waiting game to get home.

     Now, as I go home to Orange from Garden Grove, I use the 22 Freeway and exit off of The City Drive.  On the stretch of road about half a mile before hitting the exit, there's a lane where people coming into the freeway from CA-57.  The painted line dividing the two lanes, the one I'm on and the lane on my right, where drivers come through from the other highway, is a solid white color.  In the time aptly dubbed by many, rush hour, the lanes to my right are enormously congested and it's hard for me to even come across to the lane next to the exit due to the congestion!  Aforementioned, it's a waiting game.

     As I cope with the stop-and-go traffic, even before arriving where the solid white lines divide the traffic, I see, all of a sudden, many a cars behind me attempting to bypass the traffic by going into the right-hand lane, even though the lane hasn't even fully merged!  Of course, many cars followed and I thought to myself, "All of these cars are doing it.  I need to get on that lane to get to the exit.  These cars are really razzing my berries doing things they aren't supposed to do.  Why don't I do it?"  Couple of things come to mind.  First is this video.

     Second, it made me think of the world.  Many people emulate behavior that may not necessarily be right, but is popular among their social group they belong in.  Because of it, drugs gain popularity.  The powerful, God-given emotions to make life is abused.  Language is profaned and people are fallen.  People may be social creatures, but I strongly believe that people are also moral creatures too.  As these people fall into the traps devised by Satan and friends, we as missionaries must rise above.  We are not lemmings, jumping off a cliff when someone else does.  Bad will always be bad, no matter how sugar-coated it may be.  Just as this little incident of breaking the traffic law, many are doing it, and you see the general appeal of doing it, but by so doing it, integrity is slowly chipped off your being.

     As I learned that patience brings not immediate gratification, but future blessings, and the fact that it may be an indicator for future success, I'm happy to say that I didn't cross that lane that day.  I won't be crossing that lane in the near future as well.  Those people can risk the opportunity to have some flashing red and blue lights chasing them down, rebuking them, and asking them to donate some hundred or so dollars to the state government, further holding up traffic and enraging even more drivers, but I know now the choice I have made. 

     Patience, or enduring to the end, is a rather poignant piece of doctrine that we teach as missionaries to those who listen.  It's a hard thing to abide by, but we do promise-- God promises-- that if we are so, patient and longsuffering in our faith in God, that we will be granted the greatest gift of all.  Sure, temporal blessings may come through diligent faith-- there are extremely wealthy people out there who have endured in the faith.  However, even more than that, God promises us that if we "fight the good fight of faith," we are holding strong to this gift of eternal life which we will inherit (1 Timothy 6:12).

     God is no promise-breaker.  It is through His word found both in the Bible and also in the Book of Mormon that He tells of His work and His glory.

"Behold, I am the law, and the light.  Look unto me, and endure to the end, and ye shall live; for unto him that endureth to the end will I give eternal life" (3 Nephi 15:9).

     Wait for it-- because you deserve it.