This morning, I’m caught between a rock and a hard place. A space I don’t enjoy being. Decisions. Improving my options. Not captured but free. Loose. Ready to fly.
I’ve Shared This Before
We were behind a red car at a stop sign, and the driver was not taking advantage of the break in traffic to move. Which way? There were only two choices. Left or right. Make a choice. I don’t care which.
I got out of the car and walked to the driver’s seat. A young blond lady was sitting slumped over and drooling. Asleep? Passed out? I’m not sure. Her car was in gear, and her foot was on the brake. I tapped the window several times, and finally, she dazedly looked up and around. “Who’s making that racket?” She sees me, rolls down her window, and asks if she’s okay. Sure. Then, without hesitation, she zooms forward, through a turn, and immediately into the ditch on the other side of the stop sign. I run over, and she’s just sitting, foot on the gas pedal, and driving as if moving down the road. But she was stuck.
Driving stuck without a care in the world!
Several guys stop, and they get her on the road. Not one time did she take her foot off the gas pedal. Zoom! She’s gone! She exhibited no change from a few moments before. Instead of helping her make a good choice, they enabled her state of mind and watched her speed away. Who knows what became of her?
Now, I’ve been stuck many times.
- I remember it as a kid at Dolan’s Gravel Pit. We were too young to help Dad, and I remember it taking him a long time and a lot of sweat.
- I went down a red-clay road with Dad and family to a river bottom along the Trinity River. We got stuck coming up the hill. It took several days to get that truck out! Only after the road dried out, if my memory serves me correctly.
- On another trip with my son and his friend, we found an old route to Livingston, so we went down a hill (the same kind as before). Suddenly, I was sliding our van, and we ended up in a ditch. A distant relative at the top of a hill had a unique tractor, and he walked our van back to the top.
- I’ve even gotten my tractor stuck – extend the bucket and the backhoe arm, and I can dig myself out of anything I put myself into…
My thought? We should never stay stuck… Make the best of it, adapt to the new reality, or undo what we’ve done. It’s a choice.
Choosing…
I’m reminded that even Jesus made choices we wouldn’t understand or agree with. But, He’s God.
Jesus answered them, “Did I not choose you, the twelve, and one of you is a devil?”
(John 6:70 NKJV)
His choice included knowing that what he chose included someone not the same as the others but equal to those last days before the cross: Judas.
Yet, two brothers chosen were nicknamed the Sons of Thunder: James and John.
Peter was a loose cannon. Thomas must have exhibited doubt long before his famous memory.
Get my drift? Sometimes, the choices presented are not what we thought they might be, but we make the best of our chosen direction.
An old song slips through my mind: “I traveled down a lonely road, and no one seemed to care. The burdens on my weary back had bowed me to despair. I oft complained to Jesus about how folks were treating me. And then I heard him say so tenderly.
“My feet were also weary, Upon the Calv’ry road;
The cross became so heavy I fell beneath the load,
Be faithful weary pilgrim, The morning I can see,
Just lift your cross and follow close to me.”
~Ira F Stanphill, 1953.
Is life perfect? No. Make the best you can with all you have. Sometimes, you must restart a career, relationship, financial foundation, or even your walk with God. It’s truly up to you. No one can make you.
Give me a lever long enough
and a fulcrum on which to place it,
and I shall move the world.
~Archimedes
Getting Loose to Fly, by AI, edited by me…
In shadows deep, where doubts reside,
I sought a path, my fears to bide.
But chains of worry bound me tight,
Each step I took denied the light.
Yet in the silence, a whisper found,
A gentle voice, in hope, unbound.
With courage stirred, I dared to rise,
And broke the chains to claim the skies.
Released from doubt, I soared anew,
With wings of faith, my spirit grew.
No longer trapped in stagnant air,
I found freedom beyond despair.
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