Traffic That Can Drive You Mad

Traffic engineers generally agree that the world's most chaotic traffic melee is not in Rome, Bangkok, or Cairo; it's in Tehran, the capital of Iran, which averages about five hundred accidents a day. Almost all but the newest of the city's three million cars have dents or scrapes. Traffic laws permit right turns from the left lane, and there are no speed limits. Drivers can frequently be seen backing up when they miss a highway exit. Four or five cars abreast are the norm on three-lane streets, and one-way streetsigns are rarely observed. Neither are red lights.

Where disorder reigns, disaster flourishes, but God desires that "everything should be done in a fitting and orderly way" (1 Cor 14:40). Like disorderly traffic, moral conducts in disarrary results in widespread disaster: "Where you have envy and selfish ambition, there you find disorder and every evil practice" (Jas 3:16).

Some of those disorderly practices, says Paul, include: "sexual immorality, impurity, and debauchery; idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealously, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like...Those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God" (Gal 5:19-21). Other lists of such vices that reflect disorder in souls, and in society at large, are found in 1 Corinthians 6:9-10, Ephesians 5:5, and Revelation 22:15. Most of these disorders involve a disturbed relationship toward others, just as traffic problems are often the result of disregard of the rights and welfare of others. When we can all learn to love and respect others consistently, we'll have a happier and safer world.