Surviving the holes in the road
September 4, 2007
By Gary Rogers
“Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another — and all the more as you see the Day approaching” (Hebrews 10:25).
Many of you drive pickups, sport utility vehicles, or other four-wheel drive models that could climb a wall. My car could fit in the trunk of a 1968 Cadillac El Dorado.
When my car hits a chuckhole the front end goes into a nosedive. After bottoming out it shoots up like a rollercoaster. Needless to say, my car is worthless on our rural county roads.
If a chuckhole is big enough, it can knock your car’s front end out of alignment. Without the proper alignment your car will have undue wear on the tires. The steering wheel will pull against your attempt to keep traveling straight. Improper alignment will result in vibrations and wear on your car’s body and yours.
We deal with chuckholes in life as well. We might be traveling along early in our parenting years and a child’s crisis hits with an unexpected jar. We might turn a corner in a career and run upon a hidden obstacle that knocks the steering wheel out of our hands. Perhaps in our senior years we’re traveling at a relatively slow pace, when without warning we plummet into the abyss of disease or injury.
When those unexpected and painful events put holes in the road of our life we need a realignment shop for our spirit and emotions. We need something to correct the undue wear on our life, to help us regain a straight course and resolve the struggle with the direction we should be going.
When we leave that realignment shop we should notice how much smoother things are and the painful repercussions that once consumed our attention are now things of the past.
I believe the church is such a refuge. Visiting God’s house reduces the wear on your life, straightens the course you are traveling, and makes life so much smoother. Not all chuckholes can be avoided, but we don’t have to let the effect of hitting one keep us from enjoying our ride.
Gary Rogers is senior pastor of First Assembly of God in Coweta, Okla.
“The gospel calls each hearer to decide and respond to the proclamation of Christ’s message. The eternal destiny of each person is at stake. The eventual state of the unredeemed is almost unspeakable, but it must be told.”
“Eternity: Everyone’s Destiny,” Randy Hurst
TPE World Missions Edition, September 2, 2007
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