Have you ever felt like you
were just spinning your wheels and not getting anywhere? No matter what
you tried, you could not make progress? The Bible tells us about a
group of people who experienced something similar to that feeling. The
children of Israel wondered around in the wilderness for forty years
never seeming to make it any closer to the Promised Land. Of course,
their wandering was due to their sin of not trusting God to deliver on
His promises.
I wonder how many of use try
to make progress without checking with God first to see if that is what
he wants us to do? We end up just spinning our wheels in the same place
without making progress. I think the first step in getting out of the
“rut” is to realize we are in the rut. Sitting in the car we keep
pressing down on the gas trying to make the car go forward and all we
are doing is making the rut deeper which makes it even harder to get out
of the rut.
How did we get in the rut in
the first place? It was probably a gradual thing that happened. Our
moral standards in our society fit this scenario. Our mothers taught us
the good, the bad, (and yes, the ugly, too). If you were like me
growing up, you mom drugged you. Everywhere she went she drug me along,
especially to church. Sunday morning, Sunday evening, Wednesday night,
she drug me to church. But somewhere along the lines we have allowed
the world to slowly erode what Mom taught us. The lines between good,
bad, and ugly have become blurred. It didn’t happen over night, but
over a passing of the years.
Once we realize we are in the
rut then we stop doing what we are doing and try something else. Let’s
get out of the car and examine the situation to try to find a solution.
We look and there are a couple of things we can do. One, we can abandon
the car where it is. We think we can come back to it in a little while
when the mud is dried and the tires will gain some traction. Many
people do this with their faith, church, and religion. They feel they
are not making progress so it must be something wrong with the
situation. They abandon the situation thinking they can come back to it
later and all will be well. However, they do one of two things, they
forget about the car and go get another one, or when they come back they
discover the situation hasn’t changed and they get behind the wheel and
press that accelerator some more. The second thing they can do, other
than abandoning the car, is to try to change the situation. You find a
board or something to put under the drive wheel so the tires can get
traction. And get yourself out of the rut and vow never to get back in
it again.
If you find yourself in a rut,
like trying to do what is right instead of what is wrong, maybe we
should try to remember what we have been taught by Mom and the Lord and
apply them to our lives so that we can change the situation instead of
just spinning our wheels. More to come, next month.
See Ya Sunday,
Lynn
Round
Hill Baptist Church