How quickly we forget our sins of the past.

Last night's bible study was on David and Abigail, a story they tried to each in Sunday school to five year olds, without much luck. We tried to study it as adult men, and still needed some help. David spends a lot of time running around wiping out giants, various anoying countries, and other small towns that are on the wrong side of his sword; and on the face of it, this seemed like just another case. But in this case David over-reacted, and somebody had to go out and stop him.

Luckily, force has never been one of my strengths. As a 49 pound weakling in school, agressive behavior was not my first strategy. Hiding behind a trash can was. But it doesn't mean it never happened. I just had to think about it some to remember the good old days.

I'm a much larger person now, than in my youth, but I'm still not much into confrontation, at least not in person. Put me behind the wheel of a large beat-up truck, and its a whole nother matter.

Driving in LA is not easy. There are several million people, all trying to get somewhere at the same time, and you're just in the way. On the best of days, the average driver's behavior could be described as 'rude'. On the worst of days, they shoot at each other. One weapon in my arsenal of survival skills was my large, aged, worn down, farm truck which I got from my grandfather for $1,500. Nothing is better at saying, "get out of my way", than a vehicle that obviously has been neglected.

More than once, I've gotten so close to the micro car in front of me that you could barely see them any more. Heck, I hid an entire CRX below the line of my hood once, driving down to San Diego. Only saw him again once I leaned on my horn and he scurried into another lane.

It got so bad, that one time, when I saw another guy pull out around stopped traffic on the freeway into the exit lane, that I drifted back a little, making an opening right in front of me that I figured he'd try and cut back in on. As he got almost up beside me, I gunned the engine and lept forward, closing the gap entirely and leaving him no room to merge back in and no more merge lane to hang out in. I waved merrily as he was forced off the freeway entirely. He was not smiling back.

So, I've had my run-ins with aggression. I just like to think that I'm past that now.

Thankfully, I no longer live in LA. I live in a much smaller town, where I drive about three miles to work, and the only rush hour traffic is on the first friday night when its snowed and all the Phoenix people come up to see the fluffy white stuff. I also try and leave more time in my life to be able to handle the bumps in the road without getting anxious, and I try and not sweat it when I am late.

I don't know how I'd do, back in the thick of it, in a 1977 chevy farm truck again; hopefully I'd be a better witness for Christ than I was back then.