I was headed up one of our major north-south roads recently. The traffic in the right lane (my lane) was inching along. It appeared to be backed up for about six blocks. As I got closer to the impasse, I spotted a large, plastic trash can lying in the street in the middle of my lane.

Each car ahead of me would come to a stop, wait for a clear spot in the left lane, and then pull around it. I observed some very frustrated drivers. Hands were moving jerkily about, lips were forming words that may not have been the best, tires were screeching and squalling as the drivers tried to get around the obstacle and make up for lost time.

When I got there, I stopped, put on my hazard lights, got out of Tonka, and put the trash can back in the yard. It took me about 30 seconds to get rid of the problem. Now, I know I’m no hero. In fact, by many standards I’d be considered pretty stupid. Park Tonka? Get out in the middle of all those aggravated (and aggravating) drivers?

We don’t have to even talk about some of the intensely aggravating situations that occur in “the world”. In living within the Christian community, we can find plenty of people and circumstances that are pretty downright frustrating…trash cans in our road, so to speak! There are the people who totally misunderstand our most innocent comments. Others can’t seem to see that our motives and intentions are well-meant and sincere. Some folks are just plain stubborn, mean, ornery, wishy-washy, vacillating, ignorant, and thin-skinned. We often see these characteristics as pluses, believe it or not!

While thinking about this experience, a biblical story kept floating through my brain. We call it the story of “The Good Samaritan” (Luke 10:30-37). After you read the whole story, ask yourself this question: Was the victim of the crime a “garbage can in the road” to the Levite and the Priest? They saw the obstruction and walked on by. Even though this injured man was not “trash”, he was a “trash can” who was in their way. He was a different race and religion. They just picked up their robes, turned their heads and walked on by. The Good Samaritan got off his donkey (named “Tonka”, perhaps?), helped the man, and moved him out of harm’s way. He didn’t stop at just moving him out of the dangerous area. He took him to a safe place and paid all his bills.

Can you see an analogy to “real life” in this story? We find obstacles in our way, trash cans on our Road of Life…circumstances, events, and people that get in our way “ impede our progress — keep us from getting our stuff done – things that just plain bug and annoy us!

Here’s a very neat feature about real life: We generally have choices. We can look out only for our own interests (If I can navigate around the obstacle, who cares about those behind me). We can gripe, complain, grouse, whine, holler, yell, scream, screech, gesticulate, watch our blood pressure rise, and generally behave like jerks!

Or, we can remove the obstacle! I can almost hear what you’re saying: “Yes, but…you don’t understand about my ‘trash can’; I don’t have time to ‘get out of the truck’ and move it; other people might get angry with me if I hold up traffic in order to make life better and safer for all of those coming behind me; ________________________(fill in your own excuse).”

Or, we can view the obstacle as an opportunity. An opportunity to make things right…An opportunity to put things in their proper place…An opportunity to feel good about ourselves for going out of our way to do the right thing.

What Are The Life Lessons
I Discovered In This Story?

• There is help available.
• God will not allow anything to come into our lives that we can’t handle (with His help).
• He doesn’t promise that our obstacles will be easy to remove.
• He does promise to help us get on down the road He’s selected for us.
• Often, we need the help of a good listener or a skilled counselor.
• Dealing with the obstacles in our road is better than ignoring them and hoping they’ll go away.
• Our definition of the trash cans we come along in life, pretty much determine whether they’re obstacles or opportunities.

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