Just a little understanding...

Give me understanding and I will obey your instructions; I will put them into practice with all my heart.  Psalm 119:34 (NLT)

Last week I had the pleasure of joining Jay as he took one of our horses to a race in Ohio.  It was just he and I and it was a nice little getaway, although very short...and our sweet Divinity Doll didn't win...but that is horse racing.  Anyway...

I learned a valuable lesson on the drive home.  Again, one that goes along with a post from earlier this week, sometimes you just don't realize how difficult something is until you've tried it.  And this was a perfect example.  The traffic was horrible.  It was all interstate driving, thankfully, but with a goose-neck horse trailer and a large truck it was tricky.  It was around 5:00 on a Friday evening the weekend before Christmas so you can imagine how many travelers were on the highway.  And a large number of them were in a big hurry.

Believe me, I have been that irritated, frustrated driver screaming, "Why won't you get your SMV out of my way so I can pass because I'm in a bigger hurry than you?!"  I have been the psycho lady who is ranting and raving under my breath trying to will the SMV (slow moving vehicle in case you didn't know)  to get over so I can keep on movin' on because, of course, I'm late...but now I get it.

You see, with a large four-horse goose-neck trailer that is actually hauling a horse, you cannot just speed up and slow down willy-nilly.  You can't just whip in and out of lanes of traffic.  You have to leave gaps of space and plan for sudden stops and such.  At one point the traffic literally halted without warning and it was an extremely close call for us...we did have to slam on the brakes to avoid the semi in front of us and Jay hopped out to check on Doll, and fortunately, although breathing heavy, she was fine.  Thankfully, there were not other horses in there to knock into each other.

During farming season it's a somewhat similar scenario.  You are late and you get behind a tractor pulling a large implement or a grain truck hauling grain to the elevator on a country road.  Yikes...if you could just pass and get going.  But you don't get the chance.  And you are cursing under your breath at the farmer who is only trying to do his job, a job that he truly loves, a job that puts food on our tables.  Drive a tractor or a grain truck and see how easy it is to get over, slow down or stop on a dime. 

I learned this very valuable lesson with my Grandma Lynch was still alive as well.  She was in a wheelchair after a stroke left her paralyzed.  There was a time I didn't think twice about using a handicapped bathroom or complaining because there were a dozen handicapped parking places up close and I was walking half a mile to the door...on my very capable legs.  I would get irritated waiting on someone who was loading or unloading someone with a wheelchair when they were trying to get the chair in or out of the trunk or I would become impatient if I was waiting to use the restroom and the person in the handicapped stall was taking forever.

That is until I was the one transporting my Grandma in her wheelchair somewhere or taking her to the restroom in a public area.  My perspective changed dramatically.  I had never looked at the size of a doorway, checked for steps going into or out of somewhere or tried to gauge how much room there was to maneuver a wheelchair around in a public place or restroom.  You may not realize how bulky and heavy those chairs are if you've never had to handle one.  It changed my way of thinking forever. 

There are things in this life that we will never understand because we haven't lived them.  There are situations that come up where we would like to think we understand how we would handle them.  The truth is, most of us will never understand certain variables in life until we've been there ourselves.  We can start by praying that God will give us the understanding necessary to handle the situation.

Next time you're out and about and you get behind a slow horse trailer, take a deep breath and consider the bulkiness of their load.  Ease off and wait until they are in a safe position to get over to allow you to pass.  When you see someone handling a wheelchair and they're struggling, offer to help them out or open a door.  Consider yourself in that position.  Ask God for understanding.