Stop the Race, Lord!

I was coming home out of the western Maryland mountains down a winding interstate. The radio broadcasted severe thunderstorms with 60mph winds.  Brilliant lightning streaked the sky.  Above me hung what looked like the dark edge of the storm, massive dark fingers.  I felt like they were going to reach down and grab me.  The wind swirled, with gusts that bent trees over and pushed my cars. In the back of my mind were two thoughts:  outrun the storm or stop and enjoy it letting it pass.  I chose to outrun it. I got momentary downpours—but, I seemed to stay out in front of it.  What would you have done?

There is something deep in us that does not stop, accept what is happening and let it have its way.  We’d rather assert our control and dominance over it.  No matter that a friend of my family ran off this very same road and was killed in a storm. 

Forget the storm. We also try to outrun our mortality.  The anti-aging pills flood markets, the books that turn back the clock are rampant, and the lengthening of lives goes on and on.  Better luck turning back the hands of time.

Maybe it is time to see the sign for the Rest Stop and do just that—STOP and REST!  Don’t we always see the Rest Stop sign and think—bathroom break?  How about a whole new vision.  Go with the storms.  Don’t fight them…  Go with the day…  Enjoy what you can.   Maybe Jesus had it right when he said to  take his yoke and find rest—give the day to him. Stop, rest with him…and offer the day and its storms and sunshine to him.  Exactly what would it have felt like for me to stop at that rest stop (which I did) and to have waited on the storm and soaked it in?  I never took the time to find out. 

Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me;

for I am gentle and humble in heart,

and you will find rest for your souls.

Matthew 11:29