Tag: Back Seat

It’s Safer Driving from the Back Seat

This is the fourth part in my series on 5 life lessons that I learned from Labor Day weekend in 2005, while volunteering with efforts after Hurricane Katrina.

  • Wow, a hurricane.
  • Hundreds of thousands forced out of their homes.  That sucks.
  • I hope someone helps them.
  • The church down there should help them.
  • The Church should help them.
  • Our church should do something.
  • I should do something.
  • I should do something tangible.
  • This process is unorganized.
  • Why doesn’t the Red Cross have this more organized?
  • Why doesn’t that leader organize things a bit better?
  • Why aren’t we doing this or that?
  • If I were in charge, I’d do it differently.
  • Why aren’t the leaders doing a better job of leading?  This is their job!
  • Wait, these ‘leaders’ just showed up and decided to do something.
  • This isn’t organized.  If I were here for a few days I’d do something different.
  • Wait, I’m here now.  I can lead now.  I’m here for a purpose.

Be present in the moment.  Don’t criticise from the back seat.  Even if you don’t drive for long, be willing to take your turn when the opportunity presents itself.

5 Lessons from Katrina

At the beginning of this year I tried to post a series of blogs about what I learned in 2007.  I never did get past the first post, because I quickly realized that I didn’t really grasp yet what I’d learned in 2007.  It’s often hard to look at your recent past and fully understand what you’re in the process of learning.

But, tonight I was reminded of a huge thing I learned during Labor Day weekend in 2005.  That was the weekend following disaster in the Gulf Coast, known as Hurricane Katrina.  As I was thinking about this one lesson that I learned that particular weekend, I realized that there were some other lessons I learned that weekend.  And each of these were really huge, significant lessons that have shaped my life since then.

So, this is an introduction to 5 key lessons that I learned from the weekend after Hurricane Katrina.  Read about my 5 lessons here over the next few days:

  1. Techno Savior
  2. A Little Less Action, and a Lot More Talk
  3. Pray Tell What?
  4. It’s Safer Driving from the Back Seat
  5. Shouldn’t This Be Less Fun?

One of the habits that I want to develop is documenting my life lessons and glimpses of when I’m certain God showed me something.  These lessons from this one weekend are just that.

How do you remember when you learn a life lesson?  How far after an experience do you typically need to be to understand what that experience has taught you?