While running errands today I saw an interesting phenomenon: an 18-wheeler with big letters on the back that said, “Caution! Student driver!”

Was it a joke?

The giant truck was sitting at a red light poised to turn left. Watching from a distance, I realized it was no joke. When the light turned green, the truck inched its way around the corner, making a wide turn but not quite wide enough, his right wheels edging off the road. With his painfully slow movement, he saved his turn and continued forward, slowly crawling down the highway.

Later I Googled the name on the truck: Professional Drivers Institute. Sure enough, the semi I saw was part of a fleet of 18-wheelers used to teach drivers to maneuver the big-rigs. After 3 weeks of training a driver could become licensed and was ready for the real road.

The site says, “Each student is allowed their own semi-truck to drive on the range,” an on-site pavement much like the school parking lots where we learned to drive cars. It can’t be easy maneuvering a 53’ long behemoth around a set of tiny orange cones.

I never thought about truckers needing training. Weren’t they super-drivers who knew instinctively what to do when they first climbed high into the driver’s seat? Of course that would be goofier than handing car keys to a 15 year who’d never heard of “Rules of the Road.”

Most of life’s undertakings need a training period, from toilet training to trucking, and the most difficult training doesn’t involve toilets, trucks or anything else tangible.

How do children train for playground bullying? What prepares teens for high school peer pressure? Or newlyweds for marriage adjustments? Or new parents for ‘round the clock duty? Or the elderly for steady losses?

And how do we train for the ending of life?

I think of the Bible as my “Rules of the Road” book. Although God had many reasons for putting his instructions in writing, one of them was to train us for life. Scripture leaves no subject untouched. It’s as practical as any other how-to book and details not only what we should do but what we shouldn’t, complete with consequences. Of course taking advantage of biblical advice means we must regularly open the training manual. It doesn’t work to ask God what to do and then shun his answer-book.

Life-training isn’t easy. The Professional Drivers Institute requires only 50 hours behind the wheel before graduation, but God’s training program lasts a lifetime. The two curriculums do have one thing in common, though. PDI’s web site concludes by saying, “We’ll be there for you down the road, if the need should arise.”

And God says the same thing.

“For physical training is of some value, but godliness has value for all things, holding promise for both the present life and the life to come.” (1 Timothy 4:8)