This afternoon I was driving home from a funeral on very slushy roads.
To make it more interesting, Inchelium Highway had not been plowed since the last snow. So there were only 3 clear "tracks" to drive in. Which is fine until you meet an oncoming car and you have to share one of the clear tracks. Someone ends up short driving in the slush.
Yup, I was driving along with no problem, thinking about all the work I have to do, when I came around a corner and had 3 oncoming cars to share the clear track with.
I began to slow down and nudged my right tire into the deep slush and.... I was broadside at 45 mph headed toward the oncomingit traffic.
I couldn't get the truck straightened out in the slush, nor would it slow down so, and the ditch provided a better option than hitting the oncoming cars.
So for the first time in my life, I put my car in the ditch.
I kept the pickup moving down the ditch and when I was slow enough, I punched in the 4 wheel drive. I drove the pickup back up on the road without hitting anything.
I suspect I wore out a few guardian angels and my hair is far more gray than before but I made it home in one piece -- "Thank you Lord!"
So what, pray tell, does my off-roading adventure have to do with the Christian life?
I'm glad you asked, otherwise I would have been forced to drag the story out longer and take a shot at humor -- and no one wants or needs that today.
Your spiritual takeaway from my adventure is, each one of you have a natural "slush" that threatens to derail you -- when you least expect it.
What is your natural "slush"?
Clint Eastwood played a character that said, "Every man must know his limitations".
I believe that the heart of our "limitations" is found in James 1:14,
"Temptation comes from our own desires, which entice us and drag us away."
My point? Our "slush" is our personal desire to sin.
"God's light came into the world,
but people loved the darkness
more than the light,
for their actions were evil."
John 3:19
"Stay alert!
Watch out for your great enemy, the devil.
He prowls around like a roaring lion,
looking for someone to devour."
1Peter 5:8
"Be on guard.
Stand firm in the faith.
Be courageous.
Be strong."
1 Corinthians 16:13
"So be on your guard,
not asleep like the others.
Stay alert and be clearheaded.
Night is the time when people sleep
and drinkers get drunk.
But let us who live in the light
be clearheaded,
protected by the armor of faith and love,
and wearing as our helmet
the confidence of our salvation."
1 Thessalonians 5:6-8
