This is my last full week here in India before I leave for Nepal. I have been given the opportunity to serve my teams ministry host with maintenance around the building. I made wall putty with my hands, painted the guest rooms, cleaned two storage rooms and helped clean up the bugs and cutting the grass with hand tools. Everything we’ve done has helped our host with his job and setting the building up for the things it will do and the people it will help in the future. Even though I have only left our home location a handful of times this month, I have learned something much more valuable than how staying in place can be a good thing. It revolves around the horn of a vehicle.
Back in the States you hear car horns blare when someone doesn’t move fast enough at a green light, cuts you off or just isn’t paying attention. The horn is used out of anger or frustration. But here in India, the horns are comical and sound fun, But their purpose is for communication. There are not many road rules here and barely sides of traffic. Everyone just goes. As vehicles pass each other they honk to say “hey I’m passing you”. The vehicle in front slows down a little bit to let the passing vehicle go. Or if there is a blind corner or turn, the driver will honk to let those know on the other side that he’s coming. Sometimes there is a honk in response but most of the time the people and cars move over. Because of the lack of street lights and road lines and rules just in general, I can’t tell If everyone is a terrible driver or an amazing driver. There is always something going on.
Now back to my point of the horns. I began to think how much things would change if we used horns as communication instead of out of anger. And I thought further of it into how this translates into my life. Things that come up in our lives that frustrate us and cause us to become impatient, may not always be there to cause us to honk our verbal horns. Mabey it’s god trying to tell us, “Hey, slow down a bit” or “I’m Coming and you just can’t see me.” So as I take in everything bout India as I can; I ask you to pay attention to the things in your life that may urge you to honk your life horn. It may be a warning or something trying to say that something is coming your way.
