Yugo Urway

I don’t typically drive over the speed limit. But then again, I don’t like to leave a lot of unused MPH's out on the road either. The other day I was pressed for time trying to get to an appointment. I thought I knew the way. I had a picture in my mind of where I was going and the roads I would need to take to get there. I tried taking a shortcut through an unfamiliar part of town hoping to save a few minutes. You guessed it. It turned out to be one of those subdivisions that’s full of streets that don’t connect. Avenues that make a loop through the neighborhood and bring you right back out where you started from. Lanes that dead end into someone’s front yard. To make things worse, several streets in a row bore nearly the same name. 23rd Street was right next to 23rd Avenue, which connected to 23rd Blvd. What a mess!

You probably know the feeling as the frustration and desperation mounts. I’m running late and driving faster - looking for my turn. Finally I had that sinking feeling that I had missed it. And the reason I missed it is because I was just going too fast. In fact, I've missed the right road in my life a lot of times because I was going too fast to see it.

I was arrested the other day. Not by the police, but by a Bible verse. Proverbs 19:2 says, "It is not good to have zeal without knowledge, nor to be hasty and miss the way." My mother said it even plainer - “Haste makes waste.”

Speed isn't all that matters in life. Maybe you’ve seen the motivational poster that reads something like this:

Life is not a journey to the grave with the intentions of arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved body. But rather to slide in sideways, thoroughly used up, totally worn out and screaming....WOW WHAT A RIDE!!

I don’t quite buy into that....and then again....I don’t want to just coast through life either. But I do want to get it right. I don’t want to race past the road that M. Scott Peck writes about which could have “made all the difference.” I want to see and enjoy and appreciate each day.
When I'm in too big a hurry, I don’t take time to gather all the facts. I also don’t take time to pray. That tells something about you, doesn't it? When I'm pressed for time, what things do I dispose of first?

Take it from a guy who’s made a lot of wrong turns. Speed diminishes accuracy.