Colored Lights on the Road

Imagine your life as a long road toward your purpose, with smooth stretches and rough ones. You may reach a river with no bridge, a hill that seems to climb forever, or a stretch with no signs at all. Sometimes other people drive alongside you; at other times, solitude is your only passenger.

You are driving toward your dreams when, up ahead, a huge traffic light turns YELLOW.

Growing up in Costa Rica, I learned that most of us treat yellow as permission to hurry. We hit the gas before it turns red, or before the cars beside us even begin to move. But in life, the yellow lights are those critical moments when we have to choose between rushing ahead and slowing down. Temptation starts arguing with responsibility. Excitement starts shouting louder than conscience.

Sometimes a yellow light is God asking us to pause, breathe, and seek His guidance before a decision derails us. It is not always a no. Sometimes it is mercy.

“Your word is a lamp for my feet, a light on my path.” – Psalm 119:105 (NIV)

A few seconds later, the light turns RED.

Now you have to stop. Red lights are the seasons when you feel stuck, sitting still while everyone else speeds by. Friends are graduating, getting married, launching businesses, chasing down dreams, arriving at places you thought you would have reached by now. You are still waiting. And waiting can feel like failure when you forget who controls the light.

I know how frustrating that can be, but no one shuts off the engine and abandons the car just because the light is red. You keep your hands near the wheel and watch for the change, ready to move when the time comes.

“I wait for the Lord, my whole being waits, and in his word I put my hope. I wait for the Lord more than watchmen wait for the morning, more than watchmen wait for the morning.” – Psalm 130:5-6 (NIV)

Then, suddenly, the light turns GREEN.

It is time to move toward the goal. And if you do not move, the people behind you stay stuck too. As ministers, leaders, parents, friends, or simply people of faith, we have to learn to recognize those windows of opportunity when God says, “Now.” Hesitate too long, and the light may turn red again.

Turn the dreams God placed in you into plans, put them in His hands, and trust Him enough to take the next step.

“On one of these journeys I was going to Damascus with the authority and commission of the chief priests. About noon, King Agrippa, as I was on the road, I saw a light from heaven, brighter than the sun, blazing around me and my companions.” – Acts 26:12-13 (NIV)

“Whether you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you, saying, ‘This is the way; walk in it.’” – Isaiah 30:21 (NIV)

Whatever setbacks you have faced, keep looking toward the goal. Like the traffic light, God’s Word can guide our decisions and help us recognize when to wait and when to move.

So slow down when He says yellow. Wait when He says red. Move when He says green.

And keep going.

“Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.” – Philippians 3:13-14 (NIV)