Flat Tire

There is a new kind of tire that brags that it can run over a nail and keep going.  In fact, the tire is supposed to stay inflated for fifty miles at speeds of up to fifty miles an hour!  It doesn’t mean that you won’t get a flat... it’s just delays your flat until you can get to a service station.

It puts off the inevitable stop you’ll have to make.  Delays the results of an unfortunate occurrence.

As I thought about this, I wonder how many of us live our lives that way?  We make an error of judgment... or a terrible mistake... and we don’t pay for it right away.  We live impervious to the consequences and continue to just keep driving.  It doesn’t mean that we won’t eventually have to fix it... but as long as it keeps looking like we’re ok... we keep on going in hopes that it will just disappear.

Just because it doesn’t happen right away doesn’t mean it won’t.  Sometimes the flat comes much later in the form of regret.  Sometimes it’s shame... or pain... or heartbreak.  

I didn’t mean to say that to them... how come they won’t talk to me anymore? 

I didn’t know that what I was doing would hurt them so badly.

I didn’t realize that one decision could derail God’s plan for my life.

Thump... thump... thump...  the sound of a flat. 

Current bad decisions lead to eventual life flats... even if those consequences don’t come immediately.  We have to be intentional with every decision we make.  What we think leads to what we do and that leads to the results that we achieve. 

Find yourself picking up a lot of nails?  Check yourself.  Are you saying things that honor God?  Putting yourself around people with your same Christ-like beliefs?  Encouraging others?  Refusing to gossip?   If not, make the decision today to drive on smoother roads.  All of us are going to make mistakes from time to time and all of us will face the results of those choices.  But if we do our best to avoid the hazards, we minimize our chances of blowouts and stress. 

Find yourself with a nail in your tire?  Pull off now and repair it.  Mend the relationships that have been damaged.  Apologize.  Seek forgiveness from those you’ve hurt.  Patches may not be easy but they will get you back on the road to your destiny. 

Don’t wait for your life to go flat before doing something about this.  I’ll be praying for you on your journey. 

The Real Story

Xiang Junfeng’s wedding was an incredibly special day in her life.  So much so that each day she gets up and puts on her wedding dress… or one of her other wedding dresses… and spends the entire day in it.  When asked why she does this, she says that the gown represents the proudest day in her life and wearing it reminds her how happy she is to have married her husband.  

Sound strange?  There’s more to the story.

She wasn’t just a celebrating being a bride that day… she was celebrating her freedom.  Earlier in her life she had been kidnapped and sold as a slave… forced to marry an elderly man and spend 15 years plotting an escape in a life she never wanted.  As she ran from where she was being held captive to Liujiazhuang Village, she met a woman who did whatever she could to help.  Not long after Xiang met this woman’s brother… they fell in love… and got married.  

How many times do we rush to judgment when hearing about someone’s life?  If I would have stopped after the first paragraph, many of us would have walked away thinking this woman is eccentric… odd… someone who needs to come to grips with “the right way to act.”  But when you hear the rest of the story, things get clearer and start to make more sense.  She isn’t wearing a wedding dress everyday just because she’s a happy bride… she wears it as a symbol of emancipation and of the true love she’s found in her heart for her new husband.

As we head in to 2017… let’s dedicate ourselves to digging below the surface in the lives of those we know.  Let’s stop with the pleasantries and spend the time getting to really know people.  Jesus modeled this so many times in scripture… His discussion with the woman at the well (John 4), his talk with the woman who committed adultery (John 8), and his choosing of the original disciples (Luke 5).  Christ didn’t judge any of these people by who He saw on the surface… He pushed through the apparent and uncovered the potential.

There are people all around you today that are begging you without words to ask that second question.  Rather than just “How are you doing?”… they want “How can I help?  What do you need?  or Is there more you need to share?” They want you to ask for the story behind the story and genuinely care about it.   There is so much more to people’s lives than a first impression.  And if we are really going to love them like Christ does, we have to be willing to hear them out and get the whole picture.   

Want to be a real friend?  Dare to ask questions, seek understanding, and get involved beyond the surface of the relationship.  It will help illuminate, enhance, and bring maturity to a bond that can last a lifetime!