Dear Jesus, take my wheel!

 

Realizing your child is under the wheels of your own car is a horrible way to finally end all that great "Christian" manipulation and control. There was absolutely nothing I could do. I couldn't lift the car off him. I couldn't make him wake up. I couldn't stop my pain. But when my son and I needed You, Jesus, You were right there. You helped me see that  I hadn't  really given You control of all my life. I'd given You just a few pieces here and there. I finally had come face to face with the real, ugly truth. If I hadn't given You all my life, I really hadn't given You my life at all!.

Right now, I'm just passing along the lesson You taught me. None of us will ever be smart  enough to be in control of our lives. The problem is that lots of religious folks down here are convinced they have a right to be in the driver's seat. They even believe You've given them a special license called "salvation", and now stand behind each and every avenue they take!  If they run over a loved one every now and then, they excuse it by saying, "It must be God's will". 

What an ego trip for us Christians!  Being in charge of our own spiritual lives may satisfy our lofty dreams of religious  success. But those very dreams can become our worst nightmares! Because we can sincerely believe something and still be sincerely wrong.  "Believers" are down here, "driving" the wrong way on this one-way street called Life.

It's absolutely nuts! Here I am, running in and out of all this crazy religious traffic, screaming "Stop! Please stop!"  It's like talking to a brick wall!  They smile, tell me how much they love Jesus, then floor it and speed right toward me and anyone else who gets in their way with the truth.

On and on it goes! To make matters worse, most folks choose to live in la-la land and ignore the truth that death is a curse we need to agonize through. No, God didn't curse his creation. It was our ancient kinfolks  Adam and Eve,  who decided they were smart enough to figure things out on their own and chose the knowledge of good and evil.

How can we substitute a "feel good" celebration of life instead of grieving the nature and consequences of sin? What's to celebrate down here? Sickness, death, lies, pretense, betrayal, pride, more lies, more pride, more pretense, more betrayal. The only thing in all this mess that makes any sense is Truth. And the real truth is that Truth has a name. His name is JESUS.  "I am the way, the truth and the life..." John 14:6.

So, here I am, right back to You. You and I have been through a lot together. We've grieved together. You're still grieving for all of us, even now.  You know that  life is hard, and death is a zillion times harder! You're here, patiently waiting for us to finally figure out that if we are really Your children, we must let go and trust You, our Father, to steer our lives.

But that seems to be hard for so many people who call you Lord. "Believers" refuse to believe that they can be duped for years and years by their own spiritual pride and pretense! Many have "walked the aisle" asking You to take the wheel of their lives. But they stil won't admit that they just never let go. The truth is they never truly made You Lord of anything. Here they go, driving lickety-split down the same, dead-end road I did so long ago. All the chances in the world to give You total control. All will come to a tragic end at one eternal stop sign!

I remember what else You taught me. It's not enough just to let go of the wheel. Because it wouldn't be long before we'd become the best backseat drivers in the world. We'd start telling You where we wanted to go, and just how fast we wanted to get there.

Sure, letting go of the wheel is the first step. The next step is admitting that, as Your children, there's really only one vehicle for us. So, we'd better get ready to lift our feet off our tricycle pedals and hang onto the handle bars! Because our Abba Daddy is just waitin' to hop on the back and give us the ride of our lives!

Jesus, take my wheel!

Jesus said:

"Amen, I am telling you, if you do not go back and become like children, you shall not enter the Kingdom of Heaven. Matthew 18:3

"You appear such to humanity from the outside to be righteous, and on the inside you are full of abominations and hypocrisy." Matthew 23:28

"No man can come to me except the Father which hath sent me draw him." John 6:44