Trailers

A few days ago I picked up our 16' Penske truck that I would soon load 99% of what my wife & I own into and transport it across the country, quite literally as far away from "home" as I can get while staying on dry ground. With it I also picked up our car trailer that we would be hauling behind our truck. I have driven a lot of different wheeled vehicles...from a greyhound bus that felt as big as a building to my much smaller Vulcan 900 motorcycle (which is currently in the back of the Penske truck)...but nothing is quite like driving a trailer. Those of you that have before know what I am talking about and those that haven't don't have a clue, so just take my word for it. My dad has a trailer that he's had for a very long time and has paid for itself many times over, from trade shows, to installations, to moving people and more it has really been a great little trailer. Dad has talked about getting rid of it numerous times but truthfully I don't think it'll ever happen unless the wheels just fell off (but even then I'm sure dad would find some random creative use for it in the kingdom, which is what he calls his back yard that's designed to spark imaginiation and point to spiritual truth). I have driven this trailer several times before and while it's always a little stressful, it is different when the trailer is filled with basically everything you own. There's a lot of pressure there. But the one thing that everyone that's driven a trailer knows, it's that they ride a whole lot better when they are full than when they are empty.

A trailer can really do nothing on it's own other than store things and take up space. Trust me, I know, my dad's trailer has played the role of storage building and eyesore for several decades (just ask my mom). Trailers are basically mobile closets. You don't have enough room for something in your vehicle so you attach a trailer and it follows you around. It has wheels and if it's really fancy it might have its own breaks but that's really it. You attach them to your vehicle and pull them along. When your vehicle stops, the trailer stops, when your vehicle accelerates the trailer accelerates. Trailers get tossed around in the wind and as a result you have to pay so much more attention when you are pulling one.

It occurred to me as I was driving the Penske truck and trailer to a friends house that has been kindly storing some of our possessions since we sold our house, that God designed people to be trailers. By ourselves we really don't accomplish that much. We come in different sizes and shapes and some have more bells and whistles than others but ultimately we aren't fullfilling our purpose until we hitch ourselves to something. It's not that complex of a metaphor, you either hitch yourself to the world or to God and clearly which ever you choose is going to determine where you end up. However, that's not the thought that hit me the hardest. Back to that one thing everyone who's driven a trailer knows. They ride much better when they are full. You see, when a trailer is full the weight keeps the trailer on the road and it doesn't move quite as much when driving down the road. It doesn't bounce quite as much when it goes over bumps and it doesn't blow as much in the wind when it has all that weight in it. Obviously we all need to be careful what we hitch ourselves to but as followers of Christ, Christ-ians, I think it's accurate according to what I see in scripture that we function a lot better in life when we are weighed down and the weight that I am talking about is doing God's will. 

We read scriptures in John like "if you abide in me and my words abide in your ask whatever you wish and it will be done" that's not something Jesus said a lot and to be honest it seems kind of contrary to everything He taught through His ministry. Remember, this is the "take up your cross and follow me" guy. Doesn't really sound like a "follow me and get whatever you want" kind of thing. SO why would He say that? Scripture is full of teachings that give the picture of following Christ as a life filled with suffering, struggling, discomfort and pain (just look at Joseph, Job or Paul to start). It appears that the caveat to getting whatever you want is to abide in Christ/the Word (same thing since the Word became flesh). So what does "abide" mean? I hear that word and the first thing I think of is abode, like "welcome to our humble abode", does anyone still say that? Anyways. Your "abode" is your home and to "abide" is to remain or stay for a long period of time. So to abide in the Word is to remain in it for a long time. It should become your home, where you naturally go to, where you are most comfortable with. Here is the problem, sin. We are full of it. The process to getting rid of it is called in scripture as (big word alert) sanctification. This bascially means to make something valuable (or holy). It's not an easy process by any means but if it was then it wouldn't really be considered that valuable. 

Let me get back to my original fancy shmancy metaphor. If we're all trailers I think one of the big problems we have as Christians (which means we've already hooked oursleves up to the right wagon) is that we haven't given everything to God and thus we are riding light or even possibly empty and as a result the journey is very bumpy, difficult and we are getting blown all over the place. In essensence, God wants us to surrender everything to Him and trust Him with it completely. When this happens it takes everything out of our hands. Where He goes, we go, when He accelerates, we accelerate, when He brakes, we brake etc etc. 

I'm not sure if you were able to follow this long blog and my train of thought, it's getting late and my mind is difficult to stay on track but I wanted to try and get this all out there. My challenge to every Believer is to surrender it all to God and let Him take control. It takes everything out of our hands and puts it into His and then we can ask whatever we wish and it will be done because it's in the best interest of the combined convoy. God wants to accomplish His will in you. No matter what that journey look like.