July 29, 2025

One of my least favorite things to endure in life is traffic. I get illogically frustrated sitting in stopped or slow traffic, and getting stuck behind someone driving well under the speed limit for no reason is a continual source of irritation for me. But what does my frustration with traffic issues reveal about the state of my heart? Frankly, I am very selfish. I don't want other people to get in the way of my plans or ideas about how the world should operate. If traffic is bad, everyone else should stay home so I can drive unhindered. I have somewhere to be, and how dare anyone get in my way!

Recognizing my own selfishness is part of the maturing value of enduring hardship—not that sitting in traffic is genuine hardship. At ALERT, we intentionally incorporate hardship into our training, not so that we can beat certain characteristics into the men, but so that what is already inside them can be exposed. A large part of the maturing value of hardship is the mirror that it holds up to our own hearts.

 And yes, I still hate sitting in traffic, but hopefully, at the same time, I can learn to hate the selfishness it exposes with the same vehemence.