Stuck in a traffic jam
 Yesterday I was driving home from Kent to Leicestershire when I encountered a 45-minute queue at the Dartford Crossing. It was dark, I was tired and planning a break at the services the other side. As often happens, common life experiences have faith applications. Right now, it feels like I am stuck in a work traffic jam made more frustrating because I am tired!
Back to the traffic jam on the M25, the first thing that comes to mind is the question “Why?”; what has caused this? It was mid-week and I was ahead of rush hour (or so I thought). Traffic jams are often caused by some incident but on this occasion it was just too many cars using the same route. And I was one of these, of course.
I expect there is a mathematical model for determining which is the best lane to drive in during a slow moving queue. I usually choose the middle lane and stick with it. I see other cars ahead of me changing lanes whenever it seems that another lane is moving faster than the one they are in. The strategy does not help that much as usually I find myself passing them after a while. So what else could be done?
About a month ago I was in a similar situation and decided that the best course of action would be to take an alternative route so I headed through south east London to cross the Thames only to find that the other side was also full of traffic in stop-start mode and an average speed of around 3 miles an hour!
Another strategy, if you are not in a hurry, is to stop somewhere, take a break and wait for the jam to clear. That’s fine if you are not on a busy schedule and have to get to a destination by a certain time. I needed to press on and the length of queue was getting longer by the minute.
Like many in Christian work, I am multi-hatted. That normally does not present a problem and I can usually cope with the volume of work this generates. To change the metaphor, it sometimes feels like the plate spinning activity where an entertainer has spinning plates balance carefully on poles. A significant number of plates on poles can be managed provided you can keep them all spinning. I usually feel happy about the number of plates I have to spin.
But the traffic jam analogy seems more appropriate to my present circumstances as I find myself unable to hit various deadlines and making slow progress on some urgent and important tasks. So it is time for some serious self-examination. Firstly, I need to identify the cause. Certainly some incidents have taken place that have complicated progress hindering the usual steady flow of work. However, perhaps there is too much traffic on the road. Progress might be better if I had less things to do marked urgent and important. Constantly swapping between tasks (rather like changing motorway lanes in a queue) does not resolve the problem and just adds frustration. Maybe reducing the amount of traffic will help in the future but I still have to deal with the present situation.
I am inclined to think that taking a break would be best. But this will mean ensuring that I do not let anyone down. But sitting frustrated and tired in a queue is not as sensible as taking a break and having a nap at the roadside.
When I reached the Dartford Tunnels I found that the reason for the stop/start experience over the 45 minutes was a traffic management system to ensure that a traffic jam did not occur within the tunnels. That made sense. I recently heard that Transport for London are experimenting with asking people to stand both sides of escalators rather than keeping one side for those who wish to rush. Apparently, slowing people down speeds up the system!
There are times in our lives when we feel the need to rush and to push forward when better (and possibly faster) journeys could be made by slowing down. Such was the traffic at the crossing that I was obliged to pass the services there. That resulted in my having to take two sleep breaks later on! A three-hour journey took me six hours to complete, mostly because of my own poor traffic management.
So, all this is to flag up the fact that I am currently stuck in a queue making painfully slow progress with some jobs I would have liked to have completed by now. I shall be using the ‘take a break’ strategy as best I can, but otherwise this is like phoning ahead to explain the current situation and ask you to be patient with me. I am still on course and will complete all promised tasks as soon as I can Praise & Prayer News may be a bit irregular. I am not sure whether Christmas cards will go out and some thankyou letters will inevitably be delayed. Non urgent tasks can be put on hold.
I also ask your prayers please as I consider reducing my overall ‘traffic volume’ to ensure that what I do in 2016 is done on time and done well.
Recent News
I was saddened to learn of the home-call of two more former colleagues and good friends in the last few weeks (bringing the total to three this year). Graham Silver, a former colleague in Mission for Christ and long-term supporter of Rural Mission Solutions, and John Bradley, a former trustee of Sunrise Ministries (Rural Mission Solutions’ formal name) and another log-term friend and supporter are now enjoying life in the presence of the Lord. Please pray for family members at this time.
Please pray for the members of Yelvertoft Congregational Church as I have served notice of my intention to retire from this aspect of ministry. We will be meeting to consider the implications on Saturday 9th January.
I have had some wonderful school assemblies and several special Christmas-based events with opportunity to make God’s word clear and plain in an attractive and effective way. I thank God for his inspiration and blessing. Prison ministry has also been rewarding. At the prison carol service, led by a Salvation Army band and songsters. The prison male voice choir sang one item on their own and joined in with the songsters for another special item. The band played a special band setting for a carol tune I wrote a couple of years ago. It was unexpected and moved me deeply to hear this. To cap it all I was asked afterwards if I would conduct the band playing it again. What an honour!
Coming activities
- Urgent administration work being done for ‘Action for Christ’ (I am taking a break to write this)
- Saturday 19th Dec. ‘Get Messy for Christmas’ (form of Messy Church) and carol singing witness at the Marina both in Yelvertoft.
- Sunday 20th Dec. The Christmas Warmer at Yelvertoft Congregational Church (a friendly and informal opportunity to share the real message).
- Tuesday 22nd Dec. HMP Gartree
- Friday 25th Dec Christmas Reflections at Yelvertoft
- In January there will be some important meetings. If you do not pick up the news in a Praise & Prayer News please follow me on Facebook and Twitter for information. Use the links below and bookmark them in your browser.
May God grant you a very happy and blessed Christmas. Please keep in touch. Thank you for prayers for all our activities, especially prayers and donations for Rural Mission Solutions. |
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