In real life, when you hit a pop-your-tires-and-bend-the-axle-while-swallowing-the-whole-front-end-of-your-car kind of pothole, you need help beyond what you can do for yourself … you call a tow truck.
Potholes on life’s highway need help, too. Tow trucks for these kind of potholes come in all kinds of forms … friends and counselors, hired help, information from books and folks who have been there and done that, any place where you can find comforting shoulders and helping hands and lots of inspiration to hang in there.
My favorite “tow truck” is YouTube. I grumble and gripe about social media and technology that has taken over our lives, but the truth is, I’m just as addicted. I’m a little smug about being able to put my phone down and be present with people, but when alone, when I could be writing or drawing or reading or – gasp! – running the vacuum, I’m more likely to be found watching videos.
I justify it, because, one, I’m pooped and I just want to take a break for a few minutes, and, two, YouTube is full of happy housewives showing the world how they schedule their chores and manage their households ... and I get inspired … Hey, I can do that, too! Occasionally one of them will get really honest about the room where she’s staged the video, and what the other rooms really look like … and I feel relieved … Thank goodness! I’m not the only one failing miserably!
But the problem with YouTube and all social media is that when the video ends, there are 20 more calling out, Hey, look at me, too! And before you know it, 3 hours have passed and even if you did learn the proper sequence for cleaning a room or how to prep meals for a week, it’s too late to do it now … try again in the morning …
So I swear off YouTube for a while and I get myself together and get it all done. I go, go, go until one day, finally, this is all working a little better! And I get all puffed up and smug – This isn’t so hard! But I sure am pooped … I need a break … let’s go watch some YouTube – and if I’m not careful, I’ll get all behind and all frustrated once again!
Because I have the same problem that many of us have … I get all hung up on my performance and getting visible, measurable results. If I can’t show the world my perfectly run home and my cleverly and perfectly drawn and written blogs and articles, I have failed. I am a failure ... well, maybe … maybe not …
Maybe all that’s really happened is that I have forgotten an important fundamental truth: we are human beings, not human doings! We are beings who are designed to do things. We’re not valuable because we do things … we do things to express our value. Our value is found in who we are … who we “be” so to speak.
This is the whole point of Easter.
Who we are is sinful corrupt beings who chose to reject God and His Ways, and instead chose to run our own lives apart from Him. We live separated from Him on earth, and when our earthly life ends, and we enter eternity, we will still be cut off from Him forever, because He is so holy and cannot tolerate our sinfulness.
But we are His creation and He longs for a restored relationship with us. He knew that if given a choice, some of us would come back to Him. So He sent His Son to live among us. Jesus lived on earth, fully human and fully God, and struggled just like me with loneliness and frustration and disappointments and being misunderstood. Unlike me, Jesus always chose to follow God’s will over his own. Then he died, just like we will one day, but his death was a substitute for ours – the innocent taking the punishment for the guilty. Then he overcame death, and is alive again! When we accept by faith his death as a substitute payment for our sin, we are made alive, too! Our physical bodies will still die at the end of our earthly life, but we will enter eternity and be restored to our relationship with God and restored back to what He intended all along!
While this present, corrupt earth exists, all humans have the opportunity to turn back to Him by accepting by faith what the Son did. Some of us will and some of us won’t, but one day the opportunity to choose will be over. A righteous God will execute righteous judgement on a corrupt world. This earth will be destroyed and then renewed and restored to what was intended all along. And a holy God will live in harmony with His creation, never to be separated again.
Humans can live decent, successful earthly lives apart from God. But like Joshua said, as for me and my house, I’m in it for the long haul. I want to live a decent, successful life forever! Although I look forward to eternity, I can live it now … daily I can “be” in Him.
He created me to “do”, but I know when I take off and “do” it all on my own, it’s disaster! All my doing goes better when I simply stay present with Him … when I focus on being in Him, it gives me the strength to stay focused, balanced and to keep things in perspective. In Matthew 15, Jesus calls it “abiding” in him, and that’s the whole secret to all of our trying and striving.
Sometimes I’m not so happy with not having blogs written or chores not getting done … but the house is full of peace, because those are usually the days when we’re all having long conversations about getting through the grief and pain of losses, or being thankful for a safe place to be when we’re feeling lonely and vulnerable and the world is coming apart at the seams, because we know Who holds us and the hope we have in Him. The hard times here are temporary, the eternal good times to come are permanent.
Sometimes it’s more fun, because chores are caught up and the writing and the drawing are getting done as well … and the house is full of peace, in spite of the fact that the outside world is still coming apart, because we know Who holds us and the hope we have in Him. Even when life is sailing along under blue skies and sunshine, we’ll savor it all while it lasts, because it’s all temporary, and we’ll take the good memories with us into the permanent and eternal times.
I daily re-learn what I’ve known all along … true success is more about who you are than what you do. Get the "who” right, and the “do” will fall into place.
We’re disappointed when we don’t see the results we were aiming for. We may see dreams and goals slipping away, but that’s not always an indication that we’ve failed. God has dreams and goals for us, too. Abide in Him and you will not fail, even though you might be disappointed that you couldn’t achieve what you had planned.
Life is a highway, as the song says.
Enjoy the ride.
But if you hit a pothole, or maybe even run off the road, just remember Who to call ... He understands potholes, and He'll send along the right tow truck to get you back on the road and rolling again.