Driving in the Dominican Republic really brings to mind “defensive driving.” At times in the USA I would be on a busy highway at I would keep in mind an escape route in case the traffic came to a quick stop or the guy who was driving sporadically in front of me decides to do something even dumber than before. Here the roads are narrow. People drive ready to pass with their car 3 feet over the line at all times and leaves you little room to avoid motorcycles who are riding 3 feet in.
The winding road we take up to Niños de la Luz is narrow and has corners with little visibility. The large dump trucks will come down about 45 mph down the center and don’t move over for oncoming traffic. The road have no shoulders like what we have in the US. Trees, fences, cows, people or horses are also in spots. Sometimes even a “parked” car will be on the side (2 wheels on the dirt, but most of car in road.)
The other day as I drove down that road and realized how much time I was spending thinking of where I can drive off the side of the road. This was my way of planning an escape of an oncoming vehicle. I also realized that we should do this in our daily walk especially when we know we might be in an area of temptation. If you struggle with alcohol, for example, and you are visiting a friend’s house who drinks – you may want to have another friend come with you to keep you accountable. If we make our exit plans beforehand, or not necessarily make plans but be aware of the “exits” we have available to us.
But like it says in I Corinthians 10:13 – “There hath no temptation taken you but such as man can bear: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation make also the way of escape, that ye may be able to endure it.” So, there is always at least one way of escape, we just need to be looking and aware of our escape routes.
Even the keyboard I am typing on has an escape key…
