Go With God

   

When I was a kid, I had a motley collection of die cast metal toy cars.  Sold under the brand names "Hot Wheels" or "Matchbox Cars", they looked just like a miniature replica of hot rods and cool cars on the road at the time.  The only thing that worked on them was that the wheels would roll--it would not steer, and you had to push it to make it go on a flat surface.

Soon after I started collecting small replicas of fast cars, I got a package of orange, interlocking tracks.  The plastic "roadways" would connect end-to-end, and their raised edges would keep the cars from veering off under the bed or dresser, where I couldn't reach them.  This made the cars more enjoyable to play with, but it still took a lot of imagination, because they would not propel themselves.  I discovered that if I elevated the first part of the track a little bit, the car would zip down the ramp and roll on until it hit something or it ran out of momentum.  The gravity that propelled it downhill would also be the force which slowed it to a stop when the road leveled out.

When I outgrew the tiny cars and their ugly burnt orange tracks, I noticed that they had invented accessories that would propel the cars automatically.  No longer did the kids need to engineer downhill tracks.  Instead, they could buy curved tracks that made the cars travel in an oval pattern.  The motorized thrust-er would give the toy cars enough momentum to zip around the curved track and back to the motor again.  The cars could go and go, without having to pick them up and start over again. As long as the power remained on, the little cars would go round and round the track.

In a way, this progression parallels my spiritual journey.  After I grew up and set out on my own, I was directionless and unmotivated.  God had to literally pick me up and place me on track in order to keep me going straight.  From time to time He would lift me up to a spiritual high point.  From there I could zip down into the real world, with enough momentum to jump the chasm life set before me, or even loop-the-loop if given the chance.  But eventually the gravity inherent in every day living would slow me down.  I would grind to a halt, and need the hand of God to propel me forward again.

As I grew older, with more responsibilities (like a job, and a wife, and then children), my life began more and more to resemble an oval track.  I would go round the first bend and receive wages for my work; just round the second turn, however, were the bills.  Round the first bend was friends and relatives.  Round the second turn were arguments with the wife, or friends' betrayals.  I became very familiar with the treadmill I was running.

Over time I have discovered that I need energizing as I go round life's racetrack.  At first I thought church and God were like a pit stop--somewhere to get the engine serviced, check the tires, and get help when I needed an overhaul.  The older I get, however, the more I think of worship among fellow Christians as being just like that electric motor the kids play with.  The one that shoots their cars round the track and back again.  Each week I look forward to that thrust of spiritual momentum that gets me through to the next time.  If I miss going through the wheelhouse of the church, I lose momentum, and am in danger of coming to a complete stop.

Just like the die-cast toys are made in the image of actual automobiles, so I am made in the image of Almighty God.  However, I do not have an internal combustion engine; I cannot self-propel.  I need outside motivation, and a track or surface free of obstacles and debris.  The motivation I receive can come from natural sources, like gravity, or a strong wind.  But gravity slows you down.  The wind makes you go, well, whichever way the wind blows.  That may not be the direction God wants to take you.  "He brings princes to naught and reduces the rulers of this world to nothing.  No sooner are they planted, no sooner are they sown, no sooner to they take root in the ground, than he blows on them and they wither, and a whirlwind sweeps them away like chaff." (Isaiah 40:23-24).

No, it is much better to be propelled by His power, in the direction He wants me to go.  And if I make a habit of going through the church house each week, like the die cast toy cars going through the wheelhouse every time around the track, then I can run forever. "Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another, and so much the more, as you see the Day drawing near." (Hebrews 10:25).  I must make sure, however, that my "wheelhouse", my motorized motivation, is connected to the Source.  If not, then the wheels stop turning, and I come to a screeching halt.

Then those who feared the Lord talked with each other, and the Lord listened and heard.  A scroll of remembrance was written in his presence concerning those who feared the Lord and honored his name.  "They will be mine," says the Lord Almighty, "in the day when I make up my treasured possession.  I will spare them, just as in compassion a man spares his son who serves him." --Malachi 3:16-17

Think about that, my friends.  We are God's treasured possessions.  At the end of the Day, when He picks up His toys and goes Home, we will be with Him.  We will no longer have to go around in circles.  We will no longer be buffeted by the winds or slowed down by gravity.  We will be with Him forever.  How much more do we long for His touch, His energy, His momentum even now?