Dance in Your Toll Booth

For over 17 years a man had driven across the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge without incident every day , paying the toll each direction he went across . Then one day he pulled up to the toll booth and it was vibrating like a bass drum . He looked around no other drivers had their windows open . There was no boom box on the sidewalk .

Looked around no other drivers had their windows open . There was no boom box on the sidewalk . The sound was coming from inside the booth . When he looked in , he saw the attendant dancing . What are you doing ? The man asked as he paid the toll and put out a hand to receive his change . I'm having a party , the attendant said .

The man pointed out the other 16 toll booths where the attendants were standing with very stern , almost depressed expressions on their faces . He said your friends don't seem to be having any fun . No , the attendant smiled . They're in vertical coffins At 8.30 every morning , live people get in . Then they die for eight hours At 4.30, .

Like Lazarus from the dead , they reemerge and go home . The attendant then pointed to the administration building on the side of the road . He said I'm going to be a dancer someday . My bosses are paying for my training every day . The man drove away shaking his head . It was amazing . One out of 17 had found a way to live and work at the same time .

It's far too easy for people to fall into that trap that those 16 other toll booth workers had fallen into . You get up every day and you sort of do the routine that's sort of become normal for you and you're bored . You don't find anything exciting in it .

You're basically just there to get through the day and hopefully at the end of the day you'll go home . You don't find anything exciting in it . You're basically just there to get through the day and hopefully at the end of the day you'll go home .

You'll have dinner , you'll watch a bit of TV maybe , then go to bed and the next day you start all over doing exactly the same thing , without ever really enjoying or doing anything with it . God did not create us so that we would have boring lives . He came so that we might have life and have it to the full .

And we need to remember that God is not just a once-in-a-while God who does something for us , but God wants to be involved in our lives every day and he has a purpose and a plan for us every day . Jeremiah 29 , 11 says For I know the plans I have for you , declares the Lord plans to prosper you and not to harm you .

Plans to give you hope and a future . God has a plan for your life and that plan builds and unfolds every single day . Proverbs 3 , verses 6 to 5 , says Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding . In all your ways , submit to him and he will make .

Now I know several people who are detail-oriented and before they ever start a project , they want to know every step in the project along the way and they want to know exactly what the end result is going to be . And they have a very difficult time starting a project or starting to take any steps towards anything without understanding all of the process .

But here's the thing in our walk with God , we are to live and walk by faith . That means that we trust God in each step and very often he doesn't tell us all of the things that we're going to face along the way . He just wants us to be obedient to Him . So when the Bible tells us to love your neighbor , he doesn't tell you the steps to do that .

We're just to love on them and believe that our obedience to God will make a difference in the lives of our neighbors and of our family and of our friends and everyone that we try to show God's love to . We need to keep moving in what God is telling us to do . We cannot ever be static . We have to keep moving .

We have to keep doing and believing where God's taking us , even when we don't fully understand the why . Why be kind to someone who's been mean to you ? Why forgive someone who you feel really doesn't deserve forgiveness ? Why should we give anything when there's so much that we need ourselves ? See in and of ourselves . That doesn't make sense .

But God says trust him , keep moving , keep doing , keep believing , know that he is the one who's in control and recognize that , as we are obeying him , we're truly showing God's love to the people around us , and they need it so very much . I like this verse from Hebrews , chapter 11 , and verse 8 , talking about Abraham . By faith .

Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to the place which he would receive as an inheritance , and he went out not knowing where he was going . God had told Abraham that your inheritance is going to be descendants that outnumber the stars in the sky or the greens of sand in the sea . Abraham didn't understand how that was going to happen .

He just knew he had to obey God . So he began his journey not knowing all the steps he was going to have to take to get there . But because he kept moving , because he obeyed , god blessed him and the promise of God was fulfilled to him . For you and me today , all God asks of us is that we obey , that we keep moving in the direction he has for us .

Our days should never be boring . There are opportunities for us to share , to love and to impact others every day , and that's what God asks us to be aware of . Keep moving , keep going forward , never get stuck and get bored . Have a great day , my friends , and we will talk again tomorrow , and we will talk again tomorrow .

Thank you for listening today and I invite you to join me Monday to Friday , right here on Starting Right with Danny Mac .