Your stoplight can't always be green.

Another red light. Seriously, how many in a row can I possibly get? And why does it always seem like they're all red when I'm running especially late?

I know we have all entertained these thoughts while waiting in long lines of traffic, trying desperately just to get where we're going. I'm late. I can't afford this delay. I'm so unlucky. I can't believe this is happening again. Before you know it, you're completely consumed -- by your plans and the red stoplight that is foiling them...again.

Just a couple of weeks ago, I was headed to a meeting and found myself in this familiar scenario. For just a moment, I glanced to the lane next to me and made eye contact with the driver, also waiting for the light to turn green. Where is he heading? I asked myself. Is his meeting more urgent than mine? Is he also thinking only about himself, just like I am?

Next, I found myself wondering what the drivers on the cross street were thinking as they zipped across my path. Are they breathing a sigh of relief that their light is green? I wondered. Do they even notice that we're waiting for them? What if we had decided not to stop for them?

In that moment at that intersection as I struggled to wrap my mind around others' perspectives besides my own, I stumbled on an important truth: My stoplight can't always be green.

My lofty expectation that everything consistently go my way might be justifiable if the world existed only for me. It might even make sense if it existed only for my family, my close friends, or my community...but it doesn't. The world I encounter every day is made up of thousands of people with innumerable needs and desires of their own -- some of which by their very nature are at odds with my own. If my stoplight is green, it is always red for someone else, and vice versa.

As a follower of Jesus, I am learning that this give-and-take is more than just a reality I need to live with. It is an incredible opportunity I can embrace to be a servant. The prerequisite for contentment is not that everything always go my way. Rather, it is taking every chance I find to surrender my privileges as a way of blessing someone else, regardless of the inconvenience.

Before my thoughts carried me any further, the cross traffic slowed to a stop, and several seconds later our light switched to green. Relieved, I pulled forward into the intersection, thankful to finally be moving closer to my destination -- and a little closer to understanding God's economy of give-and-take.