A Motorized Sanctuary

Yesterday I needed a “moment”. You know when you need a “moment”. I needed to just stop for a second when I was driving home from work before I delved into the next insanity. So I went and bought a Wunderbar and parked my little car in an empty school parking lot and just sat there. There was no music, there were no questions to answer or decisions to be made. I had a chocolate bar with God effectively.
And I realized how thankful I am for my car. Maybe that sounds lame but it’s true.

As I sat there in the quiet, I realized that my car has sort of been a sanctuary for me. I spend the most time with God in my car. I have cried in there and I have laughed. I have had the privilege to transport many lovely people in my passenger seat. Every Tuesday in the Tercel, I get an NHL update or the latest movie reviews from my growth group boys. I like thinking about all the late night conversations I have had with people in this car or other cars passed. You know...when you lie your seat down, put your feet on the dash and just talk. I love how the "four walls" rule applies in a car, that sanctity of those things shared in a late night talk or on a road trip.

I love my little Tercel. It runs well and is good on gas and it has a good heater. It could probably use a better sound system, but alas….one cannot have everything. If it had a good sound system I might just live in there.
I think that driving on a nice spring day, with the window rolled down, a good song on the radio and a slurpee or drink in hand is all I need in life. How simplistic is that. Maybe I would add in a nice friend to the share the moment with occasionally, but doing it alone is equally appealing.

But most importantly it provides me with a moment to be alone. Life is too busy sometimes, it races away, there are always e-mails or phone calls to return, things to be done or started. But there is time to pray when I drive, to shout loud or cry because of frustration, to be honest about how things really are, to talk them out, to laugh at the hilarity of a situation that I could not laugh about at the time. Or to simply enjoy the world around me and to meet with God. And strangely enough I feel like myself in my car. Only in my car would I feel the freedom to scream at the top of my lungs when the car is really cold when I get in or for whatever reason I feel.

I think my car also has that sense of freedom associated with it. I can go wherever I want in my car, at any time....I can just go. I need to do that more often. It will be fun to do that this weekend.

Maybe eventually I will have the privilege of living out of the city a bit (not too far) and I won’t necessarily need my car. But I like my little car. We have shared many memories over the past six months. I have driven 8000 km since I got the car in September and the end of February will mark my sixth month anniversary.

So here's to my car. The Silver Bullet. I took my car to get it washed yesterday and although it didn't say anything about it, I think deep down inside it really liked it. We have the sort of relationship in which the car doesn't even have to say anything, I just get it. you know? :)