Getting a Ticket

I got this email and wanted to share it with all of you.

I don't know what I was thinking.

Yesterday I drove three friends down to Baltimore for my roommates wedding and we drove back up to Jersey after the wedding. Six hours of driving, five hours of dancing and eleven hours of being with the same three people. B"H we got there and back safely, even in the crazy rain.

The ride felt like forever because I had to be extra careful not to speed. Usually I'll speed a little, just a little, but on this road, there were so many police pulling people over that it just wasn't worth the few minutes I'd save driving fast.

Every time I saw someone pulled over (as an aside, if you see someone pulled over, don't look at them, they are embarrassed as it is), my heart sped up, my stomach dropped, and my grip on the wheel tightened.

With every car pulled over, I glanced at my speedometer and slowed down. Although I wasn't the one being pulled over, by other people being pulled over, I was reminded that I too should make sure I'm not speeding.

No one has a perfect life.

Everyone has tzaros in some form of another. How many times do you hear a story of something that happened to someone, get an email or text telling you to say tehillm for someone, and your heart speeds up, your stomach drops, and you go on with your life?

When things happen to others-whether they are Jewish or not, they are meant as a lesson to you too.

Before Hashem does anything, He takes into account who will hear about it and who will be affected. If it reached your ears, it was meant for you too. If you see someone being "pulled over", if you see someone going through something or "getting a ticket", it's meant for you.

It's meant for you to look at your own life speedometer and to slow down. When bad things happen to others, look at yourself, look at what Hashem could be telling YOU.