Gtcotr/ss041413
Being
raised in the country and living on a farm I grew up with a common necessity to
drive anything and everything. It’s not that I’m a good driver, but I can say I
have had a whole lot of experience for a man my age.
Some
of my earliest memories involve me sitting on my daddy’s knee helping him
drive. Now don’t try this today … remember I was raised in a day when seat
belts were an option you could get on special order fancy cars and there was no
such thing as a car seat or air bag.
All
of our cars had 4/60 air conditioner with wing glass directional assist. That’s
4 windows rolled down at 60 miles an hour. Unless it was a pickup and they came
equipped with a 2/60 plus wing glass and a floor vent that blew dirt from the
floorboard up into your eyes as an added driver challenge.
When
I was 10 or 11 years old my dad brought home a Cushman scooter. It had a push
down kick start and I was not heavy enough to crank it very easily. I would
push it up to the front porch and prop it up on the bottom step and get it
primed good by pouring a little gas in the carburetor then jump off the porch
onto the peddle in front of the seat and just hope it popped off. If it did, I
could drive it to school and if not, I’d have to take the tractor.
Looking
back on it now it seems odd but at that time it was perfectly normal that
neither the tractor nor the scooter had any brakes … I mean not a lick of
brakes … nothing that even resembled slowing down. We lived on a dirt road and
I could usually find a rut or some sand to swerve back and forth in to slow
myself down and then there was always the ditch or a small pine sapling. I
learned to calculate things pretty good after a while and found several
creative ways to get myself out of the jam I had just gotten myself into. Ya
know, once you get in a rut, it ain’t always pretty.
I
can tell that my upbringing warped me a little because a few years ago I didn’t
think twice about trading for an old John Deere which had no brakes … sounded
like a good deal to me. Well, after church on a Wednesday night Brenda and I
drove up to our ranch in northeast Texas and got settled in our bunk house
around 2am. She woke early and decided to quietly climb down the ladder go out
and start mowing a 50 acre pasture before it got too hot. Instead of choosing
her tractor, she got on that John Deere because it had a smaller shredder
attached to it. A little after daylight she decided she needed a break and so
she headed back down the hill, along the creek towards the bunkhouse. It had
been uphill on the way out to work but on the way back she quickly realized
that she was going to need some brakes. Well, she didn’t have any.
There
I was, enjoying my snooze up in the loft … the rooster hadn’t even crowed
enough times to wake me up yet and all of the sudden, ka-wham! The whole house
shook and almost moved off the blocks … she done found something to stop
herself … the wall right beside the toilet which was in the bathroom just
underneath the loft in which I was no longer snoozing.
The
tractor engine stopped and I immediately knew what had happened. I quickly
climbed down out of the loft and tried to lay myself out on the living room
floor in a mangled display. She came running up on the porch and busted through
the door and saw me laying there acting all addled like she had knocked me
clean out of bed and downstairs. Then she started laughing through her tears –
she said, “I was afraid you might be using the bathroom and I’d killed you!” Thank
the Lord nobody was hurt but it did take me near all day to replace the broken
2x4’s in that wall.
Let
me get back to my message. When you work a farm or live on a dirt road and it
rains, you quickly learn about the power of a rut. You know what a rut is? A
rut is a wallowed out path, a deep groove made from driving in the same place
over and over and over again … the more you follow the rut, the deeper it gets.
Oh
let me tell you, a rut can take over … it’s like a surprise autopilot … once
you’re in rut it’s like your vehicle is possessed … the rut is going to do it’s
best to take you right back to the same place you went last time – good or bad
… it don’t care … you are in the power of the rut.
I
can’t tell you how many times I’ve slipped off into a rut only to end up in the
ditch. Why? Because that’s where the rut went and once in the rut, you go where
it goes. Speeding up don’t help, slowing down don’t help, turning the wheel
won’t always end up like you imagined … It can be a real fight to get out of a
rut.
Habits
can be ruts. Doing the same thing over and over again can create a rut. Doing
the same thing over and over again
expecting different results is insanity … why? Because a rut just leads back to
the same old end.
Some
folks live in a rut all of their lives. Perhaps it’s a rut they made or a rut
that somebody else made and they just fell off into it.
Some
folks are in a rut and don’t even know it. Just as happy as if they had good
sense. Oblivious to the ditch that
awaits them just down the road – the same ditch they ran into last time – and
they can’t figure out why?
It’s
like going in circles … at some point you might look up and say … “Haven’t I
seen this before!”
Well,
the Children of Israel found themselves in a rut recorded in Deuteronomy,
chapter 2. Some scholars believe they had been in this rut for more than 38
years. Let’s read:
Deuteronomy 2 NKJV
1 Then we turned and
journeyed into the wilderness of the Way of the Red Sea, as the LORD spoke to
me, and we skirted Mount Seir for many days.
2 And the LORD spoke to me,
saying:
3 “You have skirted this
mountain long enough; turn northward.”
Deuteronomy
2 - The Message
2 Then GOD said,
3 “You’ve been going around in circles in these
hills long enough; go north.”
The
Children of Israel had been in a rut ever since they disobeyed God and began
wandering in the Wilderness. They had been going around and around and around
this same mountain for perhaps 38 years. They were definitely in a rut.
A rut is nothing but a grave with both ends open.
What
can be done about ruts of life? How do you overcome the power of the rut?
1. Recognize the rut
a. Don’t just go
happily along in life experiencing failure after failure, drama after drama,
dead end after dead end …
b. Ask yourself: Have I
been here before?
c. Are you rebellious?
d. Are you out of
control?
e. Recognize the rut!
2. Realize that God has a better plan for your
life
God
told the Children of Israel to go north. Why? Because that where the promise
land was. God wanted to reposition them in the plains of Moab across from
Jericho and getting them out of the rut and down the road was going to be a
fight.
The
reason why it took 38 years to get them out of the rut they were in is because
God was waiting for all of their rebellion to die. (vs. 14-18)
You can’t always take the old ways into your new days.
Sometimes we have to completely let go of one thing before we can
fully get hold of another.
Only
God can tell you what and when!
What you are going through may not be punishment for your past but
rather positioning for your future.
If
your life is just going in circles, unproductive, unhappy, rebellious, usually
angry, recurring drama, frequently out of control … you may be in a rut.
Recognize it … and Realize that God has a better plan … then -
3. Act, Don’t React
a.
Don’t over-correct
b.
Make small adjustments/corrections
Just
one small step … one small correction … one small change
The
small change could be as simple as committing to daily prayer, scripture
reading, asking for forgiveness, saying I’m sorry, letting go of a past hurt,
or turning over some new leaf in life.
Once
you take that step – once you make that adjustment – you are committed … then:
c.
Hold the new course firm
d.
Straightening yourself out at the earliest opportunity
You
will feel it when you are out of the rut … now straighten up and stay on the
high ground.
One
step out of the rut will put you on a new road and can change your life
forever.
Perhaps
the one step you can take today is to turn your life over to Christ. Or maybe
you have been saved but you are holding out on Jesus and reserving one area of
your life over which you have not yet made Him Lord.
Today
you can begin a new course. Haven’t you been skirting this mountain long
enough? How many times are you going to go around and around this mountain
before you recognize that you are in a rut going nowhere?
God
has a better plan for your life. He knows where your milk and honey is and He
will help you in your struggle to get there.
What
you need to do right now is “Take the first step!” Just a small step … out of
the rut and onto a new way of life … What is your step today?
