I flew to Florida for a lecture a few weeks ago. I landed at the Fort Lauderdale airport, rented a car, and skedaddled out to the highway to make a quick 30 minute trip south to Coral Gables.
It was not a quick trip! Everybody in the State of Florida had decided to drive the same route I had chosen at exactly the same time. Stop, go, stop, go, stop, go…. It was horrible.
Remembering all the better things I had to do rather than stare at red taillights for as far as the eye could see, I got a bit tense, worked up and upset. Catching the growing anger, I put up the mental stop sign, “Halt!” Don’t go there! Anger and rage are unhealthy and lead to disease. You don’t need that in your life! I agreed.
I prayed for relief.
With a giant semi-truck on one side of my car, a concrete barrier on the other, and hundreds of cars behind and in front, I thought, “This physical body may be stuck in this traffic jam, but my thinking isn’t. Lift your thinking out of it.” So I did.
I briefly visualized my thinking above the highway looking down from the sky.
Remembering the spiritual facts of being, that I was not a physical body anyway, but a spiritual consciousness reflecting an infinite Mind, I saw the jam as an opportunity to practice spiritual mindedness.
Not going anywhere in the car, it was easy to lift my thought out of the car, out of the State of Florida into divine Mind.
I started thinking productive thoughts, healing truths, finding love and feeling it. The tenseness vanished. Peace took over. I did this for 10 or 15 minutes with grand success.
When I “came back to,” the traffic started to break up. My GPS took me to another highway with no traffic. I was driving over 60 mph, headed south and delighted with the newfound freedom.
But the big Aha moment was seeing how easy it was to get my thinking out of the traffic jam when I wanted to.
Traffic jams take many different forms.
A “traffic jam,” could be conflict with other people, a financial calamity, bills unpaid, a diseased body, emotional turmoil.
But if you’re ever “caught in a jam,” your thought doesn’t have to stay there. You can lift it out. And when you do, you’ll find much better things to contemplate and gain from.
Go to God, find the peace of Love and bring that peace into the traffic jam you left behind. It will break up and yield.
Very inspiring and beautifully expressed, thank you!
Great everyday tool…thanks, Evan.
You could have titled this Rise up out of Traffic Jams too! Loved this! Caught in a jam? Your thought doesn’t have to stay there…thanks, Evan, another insightful blog! Practical!
Most of us do feel stuck in a limited, material view of reality, and we think the exit signs are pleasure, material acquisitions, leisure etc. But those are as illusive as the flooded places on the road that keep retreating as you get closer to them. How wonderful to find that unlimited, spiritual view that lifts us out of old patterns of thought, out of the B.S. and into the C.S. Thanks Evan.
PERFECT parable, O our lovely
teacher-of-divine-Good!
Thank you and Happy New Year!
:<)))))
Again and again thanks Evan for sharing your inspirations. Early this morning I had been recognizing that yesterday’s experience with the automated video of Mrs. Eddy was an opportunity for me to practice expressing God’s unconditional Love for all. And it became clearer that it is only in my own thought where the choice has to be made whether I wallow in dislike/hate for others for uttered words or choose to express unconditional love. Having chosen to forgive as Christ Jesus prayed “Father forgive them for they know not what they do” lifted me out of the ‘traffic jam’.
Thank you once again for the reminder to always be alert as to what we are entertaining in our moment-by-moment thoughts!
I had a similar experience recently. Returning home from visiting relatives during Christmas, the first leg of my flight got to the gate but there was a mechanical problem with the jet bridge that prevented everyone from departing the plane. While they worked to fix the jet bridge, everyone on the plane got more and more tense due to the delay. Like many others on the plane, I had only 40 minutes to make my connecting flight (the last flight of the day) and I too was tempted with worry. But instead of entertaining thoughts of worry, I simply knew that Mind was in control of His spiritual creation and I had nothing to fear. And I really got it! I spent the entire delay just continuing to think about Mind and its perfect idea, perfectly created, controlled and maintained. Eventually they gave up trying to fix the jet bridge and we moved to another gate. When I finally left the plane I only had 10 minutes to make my connecting flight which was in another terminal. But the entire walk to the next terminal I continued to maintain the truth that Mind was in operation and I had nothing to fear. When I reached my next gate I found my next flight had been delayed 30 minutes. I was happy with the harmonious conclusion of making my connecting flight but the interesting part was that even though the flight was delayed taking off by 30 minutes, it arrived at my final destination ON TIME. And the flight time was only 1 hour and 15 minutes. So even with a 30 minute delay, somehow the 75 minute flight was completed in only 45 minutes and I arrived exactly when I was originally scheduled to arrive. Although it wouldn’t have really mattered to me if the flight arrived late, the fact that it arrived at exactly the original scheduled time (11:37 p.m.) seemed like such a concrete demonstration of the truths I had been thinking about while I was delayed.