“The truck came in hot, hit the gravel and jack-knifed to a stop.” Those are the words of a professional truck driver describing the use of a runaway truck ramp.
Like big rigs rolling fast on long, steep hills, managing loads so heavy their brakes glow red in the night, we can feel equally pressured managing life’s demands. Add the unpredicted pressures of job loss, health issues, children in trouble, or a week—like the one I just had—with a string of household appliances and technical equipment going out one-after-the-other, and you can end up longing for a runaway truck ramp.
The greater the pressure the more we long for a way out from under it. We want to run. We want to quit. We want to throw in the towel and bail. It’s normal to feel that way. We’re allowed to scream, we’re allowed to cry, but here’s the thing—we’re not allowed to give up—because, every good thing God wants to infuse into our lives comes through growing our ability to remain under the pressure.
God has given us the ability to remain, as my British friends say, steady on through really tough times and ultimately grow through them. It’s what the apostle James meant when he wrote, Let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.
“The worst decisions you’ll ever make in life are quitter decisions. Your best decisions, however, will be the ones God enabled you to make, where you stayed bolted in place, when the trials were pressing down on you the hardest and you refused to walk away.” Pastor James MacDonald.
Nothing is ever out of control when God is in control. Stay steady on, quit looking for runaway truck ramps and avoid being jack-knifed to a stop.
