The Driver's Seat

I’m a control freak... there I admitted it. I hate letting other people drive my car. I don’t like to give up control of situations. I like the comfort of being “in the drivers seat.” I went on a surf trip a few years ago with some friends to Va Beach. We took off in the evening, stopped by a gas station and loaded up on the usual road trip supplies. Mountain Dew, Davids seeds, coffee, sugary stuff, gum, etc. and of course yours truly was in the drivers seat. The sun was just starting to set and we were all stoked. The atmosphere was exciting... we had visions of the ocean dancing in our head. I rarely get to surf since I’m a mid-westerner so I was extra pumped. I drove for quite awhile, listening to songs, singing at the top of our lungs, talking, telling stories... but then it all began to die down, and get really quiet. Soon I found myself beginning to fade... my eyelids felt like they had weights attached to them, and my head began to nod. All the signs we passed began to blur together and after fighting it for a while, I finally decided I needed to pull over.

Now keep in mind, I HATE letting others drive, but I knew that if we were going to make it there in one piece I needed to let someone else take over for me. So reluctantly I handed the keys to one of my friends and mumbled some threats about what would happen if he crashed my car. I curled up in the back seat and passed out.

As my eyes opened to sunlight and laughter I groggily sat up and let my eyes adjust to the brightness. As I looked around I noticed a sign... I expected this particular sign to say something like 100 miles to Va Beach or something, but instead to my horror it said 100 miles to Washington DC. I immediately sat up and began accosting my poor friend who so graciously drove the graveyard shift for me. “WHAT DID YOU DO!!!” “WHY ARE WE HEADING IN THE WRONG DIRECTION!!!” “DIDN’T I TELL YOU TO STAY ON 64!!!” “I KNEW I SHOULD HAVE NEVER LET YOU DRIVE!!!”

Don’t we all have a tendency to sit in the drivers seat? Maybe not physically, but we like to be in control of our lives. To be the ones making the decisions. To be calling the shots. That’s why allowing Jesus to sit in the “drivers seat” of our lives is such a hard concept. Most of us don’t mind getting “directions” from Him, or even to have him sitting in the passengers seat giving us advice, but to allow Him complete control, now that’s another story.

For a lot of us who like to be in control we find ourselves lost, or in accidents, or maybe broken down on the side of the road. And we want to invite Jesus to sit in the driver’s seat of our lives, but we want to clean up our car first. We want to fix all the problems, and buff out all the scratches, and vacuum the inside, and then hand the keys over. But there is no way we can ever “clean up” our lives enough. The great thing is that while we were still broken and fragmented, and in sin, Jesus came and died for us. Romans 5:8 There is no way we could get ourselves cleaned up enough... Jesus simply asks us to come as we are, and hand “the keys” over to Him.

For some of us we think we know how to run our lives best. Unfortunately we have limited vision. We can only see so far down the road. But God knows the future, He knows the best way to take... in fact the Bible says “'For I know the plans I have for you,' says the Lord. ‘They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope.’” Jeremiah 29:11 Giving control of our lives to God does not guarantee that there will never be any bumps in the road, but He promises that He will always be with us, even through the hard times. (Psalm 23:4; Isaiah 43:2).

So as you reflect on your life, who holds the keys? Who sits in your drivers seat?