Drive to serve
As Ian noted in his CHN, there's been a lot of debate and discussion recently regarding restrictions for provisional driver's license holders in New South Wales. For those unfamiliar with the current licensing system here, learner drivers must have 50 hours of driving experience under their belt before they can apply for a provisional P1 license. If they pass the test, drivers stay on the P1 for a minimum of 12 months and they are not allowed to exceed speeds of 90 km/hr. After the successful completion of a second test, drivers progress to the P2 license which they must hold for a minimum of 24 months. They are not allowed to exceed speeds of 100 km/hr. Upon successful completion of a third test, provisional license holders can graduate to a full license. It's quite a contrast to other states in Australia who don't impose as many restrictions on their provisional license holders.
With the highest state road toll for the holiday period in three years, the NSW government is pushing through laws to place further restrictions on provisional license holders. These include more challenging tests, a ban on mobile phone usage (including mobile hands-free kits), regulations about the age and number of passengers, and tougher penalties for speeding.
Some of these reforms sound sensible and helpful, but I couldn't help noticing the absence of the concept of service. “Society is based on service”, wrote D. Broughton Knox in ‘The Gospel and Society’ (Selected works of Broughton Knox (Volume 3): The Christian Life, p. 155), and service stems from God's love of us which motivates us to love one another (1 John 4:11). A driver who loves his passengers isn't likely to drive recklessly and dangerously. A driver who cares about other drivers and pedestrians won't drive under the influence of drugs and alcohol. And a driver concerned about the welfare of children is less likely to speed in a school zone during school hours.
However, as Knox observed in 1976, the modern world is starting to forget that service is essential to society. Just last November a jury was discharged from a criminal trial when one of its members was no longer able to serve because her boss, perhaps as a result of the current workplace relations climate, refused to pay her salary while she was performing her civic duty. As our culture becomes more focused on the individual at the expense of relationship, I suspect that we will see more of the same. It's all the more reason to bring to society the gospel that drives us to serve.