Driving with Improvement and Humility
All doing some cleaning at home so I decided to get out of the house and I was at a stoplight. I didn't go within the standard 1.5 seconds that everyone expects me to in the Bay area and people started honking so I didn't do anything. , a red car behind me passed me and cut off an SUV almost colliding with it, to get ahead of it on the freeway.
Then I slowly began going because my car has one of those things that tells me how to save gas and be most efficient with fuel. Yes, I am one of those people but in my defense…. A person can actually be responsible for an accident if they don't look to see if it's clear to go into the intersection when the light turns green. Been there, done that and I have the T-shirt.
Then another three cars honked and passed me. It occurred to me that they weren't being very fuel efficient. But this made me think.
I have worked for a lot of what you might call very smart places like Apple and Google. Sony and so forth. All the theories of work bounce around my head when I'm driving like “Work Smarter and Not Harder”
It makes me refer back to this thing that me and my friend Marty did (yes my life is weird my best friend in high school was named the same as me), for there are several times that we would drive in our cars to a common location like church. One of us would speed and the other one would go the speed limit. With the exception of going on a freeway, I believe that the research conclusion was we might save 10 seconds at best.
Comparing this to my previous observation of driving behavior means that people are spending a lot of time wearing out their tires, breaks and using too much fuel for 10 seconds.
Another phrase off my head from work, or question really “What is the value?”
It makes me think that when I'm at work there are things we do that we consider the value of that action. This way we can either make a more efficient process to drive continuous improvements.
It makes something interesting pop from my head called “Behavioral Continuous Improvement”
I think it's a mature adult I'm supposed to do that. I also think that is what the Christian calls sanctification which is our fancy word for the rest driving everyday to do things and spend time with God to become more virtuous like Him. I stated that way because when I first came to church I accused someone of idolatry because they said we should “strive to be more like Jesus.” I realized this was a common problem in current civilization and that we don't use correct language to describe what we're saying. Because if we try to be more like Jesus who was the son of God without specificity, it sounds like we're trying to become a god ourselves. I'll add that to the list of things that believers shouldn't say.
Behavioral Continuous Improvement
Unfortunately, this doesn't involve trying to prove that we're better than someone else. It involves changing our own behavior and motivations. From moral perspective we shouldn't be doing anything but our improving and striving to overcome (in Revelation in the Bible there are several points where Jesus says that he wants people to overcome and those who do will be rewarded)
Luke 18:10-14 ESV
[10] “Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. [11] The Pharisee, standing by himself, prayed thus: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. [12] I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I get.’ [13] But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, a sinner!’ [14] I tell you, this man went down to his house justified, rather than the other. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.”
