Then God said, “Let us make humanity in our image to resemble us….”

God created humanity in God’s own image,
        in the divine image God created them,
            male and female God created them. – Genesis 1:26-27

I know it is not prudent to say this out loud, but I will risk it: Yesterday marked my second consecutive trouble-free drive down I-95 and into Florida. Tarboro to Jacksonville without any slowdowns or rain or roadwork. A little less than eight hours including a brief stop for food and gas.

I am on my way to Orlando to help our daughter Naomi get squared away with her apartment. And of course get in a visit with those fabulous grandchildren.

Even the volume of traffic was down. Typically the drive through downtown Jacksonville is a blur of red tail-lights heading south and blinding headlights from six lanes of cars heading the other way. But this time just the bare minimum of vehicles.

So I pointed my phone at the driver’s side window to try and get a sense of movement through the city. The result was a little abstract, a little unfocused, a little unstable. Kind of a metaphor for how my brain is at the end of a long drive!

But it occurred to me (while I was piloting a car that is all the time trying to drive itself), that while the A.I. works mostly fine when congestion is low and the lanes are clearly painted and the road conditions are dry and safe, what we really need when we come around the corner or over a crest, and run into a squall or a stalled vehicle or a wreck or a bank of fog or poorly painted lines or construction or a situation that requires creative thought is complete control of the car ourselves.

Likewise as human beings our lives are often too much set to “auto-pilot” or “coast” or “cruise control” or “whatever” or “blunder” (my definition of blunder is mostly the colloquial English understanding of aimlessly blundering about…) until we run into trouble – or opportunity – and we find ourselves ill-prepared or ill-equipped to deal with it.

I am thinking this way today in response to my growing realization that life is very short, and that how we live is worth the application of thoughtfulness and mindfulness and creative imagination, rather than simply blundering through and missing so much.

The human mind is the most gifted and amazing and complex and loaded-with-potential computer every imagined! God has gifted us with untold possibilities. So let’s partner with The Creator, and engage life with purpose and belief and the intention to be grateful stewards of the possible.

“Grateful stewards of the possible” – DEREK