Along For The Ride

“Let perseverance finish its work so that you may

be mature and complete not lacking anything.”
James 1:4

One of the bad things for my family after 30 years of driving back home to New York almost every holiday and vacation is their being victim to my love of driving. Sharing driving duties is something I do reluctantly and so my family, especially my poor wife Nancy, ends up as passengers more often than not. In some ways, you could say that they are “along for the ride”, forced to endure my many driving woes with little or no recourse. You can ask Rachel about New York City if you need more specific information to confirm that thought!

But here’s the thing about living life: no one is along for the ride, whatever the circumstances of your life are. No one is a powerless victim of their life. We always get to choose our response to life’s difficulties and, by doing that, we take control of the steering wheel of our lives. James 1:2 tells us to “count it pure joy when we face trials of many kinds.” In a thought that ends with our finding a greater maturity, and being made complete as a person, we’re encouraged to see all of life as situations we can learn from and where we can grow as individuals. And our attitude plays a key role in how well we learn from life’s experiences. We will feel pain, hurt and disappointment; all that is very real. But we have the final word on how we are affected; we choose our response and our attitude. And no matter how much we try to deny it, we each have our hands firmly at ten and two on the steering wheel of our future.

Henry Cloud said this about our part in our lives: “We play a part in where we are, and when we learn what that part is and what we are contributing to being there, new doors and new paths begin to open up.” As the Lord continues to speak about doing a new thing, we owe it to ourselves to make a thorough inspection of our lives, to see what part we are playing in where we are, no matter how small or how great, and give ourselves willingly to change. So often our personal change, with God’s help, is the key to the circumstances of our life changing. If we quit too soon, if we bail out because of the intensity of the difficulty, we never learn the lesson that is meant to catapult us into the next step in our lives. Dealing with our part opens the door for the Lord to do His part, giving strength, wisdom, sending help from above, answering prayers, and opening doors no man can shut! Along for the ride? Not a chance!!

God Bless
Pastor Joe
Gateway Church