Driving and spiritual growth (or the lack thereof)

I am convinced that there is no more effective and readily available test of our spiritual maturity than driving.  Unfortunately, it is a test that I too often fail. 
In the perfect providence of God, at this point in my life I am doing more driving than I would like.  Yesterday it was a 10 hour plus round trip to go back to Illinois and take care of some things there before turning around and coming back to MI.  While I am driving, there are many things that I truly enjoy.  These include:
     - the scenery in MI - a constant reminder of the creativity and goodness of our God.
     - the scenery in IL - a constant reminder of the provision of God (seemingly endless corn and soybeans - beautiful in its own way)
     - the time to pray
     - the time to reflect and plan
     - the tim. . .that guy just cut me off.
And so begins the test of my spiritual maturity.  I would love to tell you that I calmly forgave and prayed for him.  I would love to tell you that I did not honk my horn with a great deal of vigor for being inconvenienced for approximately 2.5 seconds.  I would love to tell you that I did not give him a dirty look.  But alas, if I were to tell you these things I would be lying.
It amazes me that I can go from "spiritually in tune" to anger in 2.5 seconds of being inconvenienced.  A reminder of the fact that apart from the grace of God I would be lost in my sin!  In that moment what occurred was actually a complex and very intricate series of events that can be summarized like this:  I stopped thinking about God and only thought about me.  MY life was put in danger for 2.5 seconds.  MY plans were delayed by 2.5 seconds.  MY car was almost damaged.  MY emotional state was changed.  And once I was thinking about me, it was hard to go back to thinking about God.  And therein lies the difficulty of sin. 
In Genesis 3 we are told that Eve eats the fruit because she thought that it was good for food, a delight to the eyes and it was desirable to make her wise.  Millennia later John writes that we are not to love the world, which consists of the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the pride of life.  It is amazing to me that these three things correlate so well to what Eve saw.  The root of all sin is taking our thoughts off of what God commands and instead thinking of ourselves.  Which is why I think the Scriptures are so clear to the grow in Christ we must die to self. 

     "I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me."  Galatians 2:20 (NASB)

Driving reminded me that I am still in the process of dying to self.  And unfortunately for us, self can reappear in 2.5 seconds.  God help us to die to ourselves so that Christ can be seen in us.  To God be the glory.