The Steering Wheel

For years now I have made it a priority to get on my bicycle and ride.  I do this for my cardio health, mental health and physical health.  My wife is incredibly supportive to this initiative, though there were a few years that for the sake of our marriage adjustments had to be made.  After several less than stellar moments on my part I learned that a mother of 4 young children does not enjoy being left to herself and these loving but exasperating children for an hour or more while her ignorant husband grinds gravel on a vintage 1994 mountain bike. 

To bless my wife, stay active, save our marriage and earn my supper, I procured a pull behind trailer in which I could haul half of our children behind me on the country tours of Morrison County.  The child hauler was a God send.  Over the years I used this bicycle trailer to sooth crying children to sleep, provide my wife a respite from fighting children and loaded the laps of my passengers with unexpected groceries from our quick stop at Coborns for just one quick item. 

One of the favorite features of the bicycle trailer was the cross bar steering wheel.  Once the children were buckled safely into their seat, I would secure the cross bar, with dual steering wheels, in front of their eager faces and hands.  As I cruised the streets and side roads of Little Falls, my children would pretend to drive and steer and direct our path.  Obviously they had absolutely no control as to where we were going and yet either in their imagination or convoluted understanding, they steered away as if everything they did was paramount. 

I am given pause with this scenario, in the context of worry and the sovereignty of God. (Note: this is not an illustration on the lack of freewill…so don’t take it there…that is not what I mean). I think that I have traversed much of my life independently, though I have invited God to join me at times.  In the midst of the journey, I have offered Jesus to “take the wheel” when I have found the drive of life to be too difficult, stressful, overwhelming or hectic.  What I have only come to realize, is that I have never really had a steering wheel to offer, and if I did, it was only an imaginary wheel in the trailer of God’s story.  He is the one who has always been in control and navigating, while all of my steering has been mere narcissistic imagination.

It is by His invitation that I am even on this journey.  It is not my invitation to him, but rather his invitation to me.  It is by his power and his direction.  When I drive, I am anxious.  When I realize that my steering is imaginary, I find that I am more at peace.  I can’t control where we are going anyway…so I might as well enjoy the ride.

I think this is what Jesus is driving at in Matthew 6:25-34.  Jesus wants us to know that we don’t need to worry.  He is in control.  He has always been in control. 

May we come to enjoy the ride with Him.