I would like to tell you a story. A story about one of the worst and most dangerous periods in automobile history. A time when (in Dallas) it wasn’t safe to venture out onto the roads without fear of bodily harm.
Let me begin by explaining this dangerous time, it was the 13 months that followed my 16th birthday. Thirteen months of pure danger, as I began to drive my mother’s only car; the family’s only car.
Now here comes the good part; these were 13 months in my life in which I wrecked that car five times. I can almost hear you laughing as I write these words, and I don’t want to give you more fuel to fire your laughter, but one time I wrecked it on the way home from the body shop.
In the midst of all that, my mom would stand by the door to her newly fixed car just before we would embark on some journey together and say “do you want me to drive or do you want to?” Believe me, after a couple of wrecks I thought this option would stop, but it did not. Each time I was dumbfounded and confused, but I would jump behind the wheel and go, not totally understanding the great things that were being taught to me.
You know, as I write this to you, I feel that the Lord just dropped the thought in my brain, that life is a lot like my story. We drive through life, doing our jobs, working along our own roads but wrecking our life from time to time. Some totally wreck their lives, others only partially, but a wreck is a wreck. It occurs to me that all along the way God has always said “Chuck, do you want me to drive or do you want to?” Each time I would say “no thanks Lord I can handle it” and with the same love my mother showed, God would say “Okay.”
Nowadays, when my feet hit the floor in the mornings, I’ll say out loud, “You drive Lord, I’m with you.” I study the map (our Bible) surrender to His plan and direction, His promptings and destination for the day, and off we go.
Chuck Hittle is senior pastor of Shiloh Church in Flower Mound.
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