light is usually a good thing – there’s moonlight and starlight and candlelight and the spotlight and the light at the end of the tunnel and guiding light and light that shines in the darkness – all good things.  But the light in my life right now is a warning light, a harbinger of doom, a recurring nuisance that I have come to dread.  That’s right, the tire pressure light in my car is back on – AGAIN!  This is not the first “again” either.  This is the fourth time in the last month she has come on to warn me that all is not right with my tires.  Something is amiss.

But what?  She does not tell me that, just glows bright orange silently from the dashboard daring me to defy her and continue driving as usual.  The first time I heeded her warning and took the car in to have the tires checked.  It turned out to be a nail in one of the tires, which necessitated buying a new tire.  OK, problem solved.   (see post “I gave my car a tire”)  Or so I thought.

Then my tire light came on again. I waited a little bit longer this time, but I did take the car in.  This second time she came on, it turned out that one of the tires was over inflated, setting her off.  The problem was corrected, pressure equalized all around and my tire light was OFF, again.  Peace of mind was restored.

But not for long.  My tire light soon illuminated my dashboard again, quite unexpectedly.  So I ignored her for awhile and continued driving around as usual. She did not go away but continued to light up my dashboard. Finally, the stress of driving with this warning light on all the time got the better of me and I took my car in again to have the tires checked.  This time all the tires were under inflated. Go figure?  They told me it was due to a change in the temperature which was the weather’s fault for going from hot to cooler suddenly.

So the nice people at the car place restored my tires to their proper pressure once again and sent me on my way.  I was now driving tire light free!  I was ecstatic. But my joy was short lived.  Yes, dear readers, my tire light is on again and has been for several days now.  I am doing my best to ignore her but it isn’t easy.  This light is a constant reminder to me while I am driving, that something is not right with my tires yet AGAIN!

But I am tired of driving to the car place which is far from me and the journey is also perilous because of monumental road construction taking place on the very route I must take to get there.  So I am in the midst of a stand off.  I don’t like driving with my tire pressure warning light on and I don’t like taking the time to make the long trip through all the construction to the car place, just to set things right.  After all, I’m getting along ok, aren’t I?

What to do?  My car has cried wolf  way too many times.  or has she?  Each time I’ve taken her in there has been a real problem, something not quite right. Question is, ‘how long am I willing to continue driving around on tires that aren’t quite right?’  Apparently longer each time, because it’s now been over a week and I still haven’t made the trip back to the car place.

Am I being lulled into complacency because I’ve now driven so long and so often with my tire light on that I no longer think of her as the warning light that she actually is but simply as just another ever present presence on my car’s dashboard, such as the gas gauge or the speedometer?  My tire pressure warning light being on has definitely become my “new normal”.  I hardly notice her anymore.

Except when I do.  And it is then I remember,  this is NOT normal, this is a warning light, telling me that something is not right and that I should find out what it is and get it fixed!  But that is SO inconvenient.  It will require of me both my time and my money.  I don’t want to spend either one on my tires!

Now it occurs to me that I can be like this about other things in my life also.  I think about the words in Hebrews 3:15, “Today, if you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts as you did in the rebellion.”  Do I ignore God’s voice when He’s trying to warn me that something’s not right and I need to find out what it is and fix it? (preferably before I end up with a flat tire, stranded on the side of a road somewhere, far from where I want to be)

I don’t want my tire light to be the light of my life – the only light I have.  I want more than just a warning light to guide me.  And that is just what God gives to me. Jesus said in John 8:12, “I am the light of the world.  Whoever follows Me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”   That’s a light I can live with!

Psalm 27:1 reassures me, “The Lord is my light and my salvation – whom shall I fear?”

I need a guiding light in my life and I have found one in God’s word.  “Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light for my path.”  (Psalm 119:105)  I do not have to walk in darkness.

Though my tire light serves its’ purpose, it is not the “light of my life” – that role is reserved for my Heavenly Father alone.  ”   . . .  God is light; in Him there is no darkness at all.”   (1 John 1:5)

“Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.”  (James 1:17)

thank You, God, for the warning lights You send my way to keep me safe – but most of all I thank You that You are the light of the world and of my life – I never have to walk in darkness.

“In Him was life, and that life was the light of men.  The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not overcome it.”  (John 1:4)

sincerely,      Grace Day