Merge

Merge

Recently I heard a radio DJ talking about a survey that showed, people that merge late in traffic and people that don’t allow those merger in, are what contribute to most back-ups. A story like this never would have caught my attention 6 months ago, but now that I commute to work, daily, I found myself agreeing. I am no longer an aggressive driver. I don’t know if that comes with age, wisdom, or the most likely, watching one of my babies become a driver. I watch every afternoon as cars to the left, ignore the warning signs that tell them the lane will end. It infuriates me to see a car in the safety of one far left lane that is not ending, to get back into the ending lane, because their lane is moving slow. They wiz past 10 or more cars and then expectantly turn on their signal to be let, back in.  It burns me up to watch, as I slowly progress in the middle lane, safe from the stop and go in the far left, and protected from a last minute merge. Most of the time I shake my head and wonder, what makes them better than me, that they think they can by-pass all this traffic and then swing into the safe lane, last minute?

For the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire workers for his vineyard.

After agreeing with the workers on one denarius for the day, he sent them into his vineyard. When

he went out about nine in the morning, he saw others standing in the marketplace doing nothing.

To those men he said, ‘You also go to my vineyard, and I’ll give you whatever is right.’ So off

they went. About noon and at three he went out again and did the same thing. Then about five

he went and found others standing around, and said to them, ‘ Why have you been standing here all

day doing nothing?” “Because no one hired us, ‘they said to him. ‘ “’You also got to my vineyard, ‘

he told them.

Matthew 20: 1-7

The early morning workers remind me of the folks that stay in the right hand lane all the way to their destination. They don’t worry about the lane merge because they have a safe shot all the way. Then there are those like me in the middle lane. We know that we may have to weave in and out, but we get to go at a faster pace and the exit ramp isn’t too tough to get to. Then, there are those that wait until 3 and 5. Those are the, mergers. The folks that want to wait until the last minute to get over. They go through life fast, trying to by-pass all the rules and then when the lane ends, they expect to get over in front of the rest of us.

When evening came, the owner of the vineyard told his foreman, ‘ Call the workers and give them their pay,

starting with the last and ending with the first. ‘When those who were hired about five came, they each received one denarius.

So when the first ones came, they assumed they would get more, but they also received a denarius each. When they received it, they began

to complain to the landowner. These last men put in one hour, and you made them equal to us who bore the burden of the day and the

burning heat!

Matthew 20: 8-12

God revealed to me that some people live their life like they are in the merging lane. They drive fast through life and know that the end is near, but they wait until the very end to accept Christ. For some, it may seem unfair that their reward is the same as those who gave their life to Christ at a very early age. I do believe some will be shocked in Heaven when they see the mergers walking the same streets of gold as them. Honestly, I hope not. My prayer is that in Heaven, we finally understand Jesus’s lessons on love, but that is a story for another blog.

It takes some longer than others to accept that Christ loves them. They want to live their life free and without restriction. To some they just do not believe that they are worthy of Christ free gift and for others, they just don’t understand and believe it’s all a fairy tale. We, the workers, need to stay busy doing God’s work, so we can bring more into the vineyard with us. If they see us working hard and in love, they will want to join us. For some, that means a nice long road with no bump ups, but for others, it means a merge at the last minute.

So what happens to those that wait too long to merge? Well for me, it normally means longer traffic jams, because a wreck has happened and prayerfully the car is the only thing damaged. For Christ, it means the opposite. They waited too long and now eternity is lost to them.

The next time you see someone trying to merge last minute, let them in with a smile. It may be their last chance.

Father God, thank you for your mercy that saved a sinner like myself. That brought me out of the fast lane and allowed me to merge over to a safer lane. I pray Lord that you allow us to show love to those hurting in the world, that they will merge with us. Amen.