The Oasis - April 3, 2019
Author: Rev. Dan Hollis
April 03, 2019
Pastor Dan Hollis
Recently I went on a drive with some friends to Burlington, Vermont. It’s more than a three-hour drive one-way, and as luck would have it one of my friends was happy to be the driver as long as the rest of us paid for gas.
It was the first time since the summer that I had been a passenger in a car, and the first time in quite a while that I sat in the back seat. I wasn’t the only one feeling a little out-of-place during the drive; another of my friends was sitting in the front passenger’s seat, and he noticed nearly two hours in that he had been checking the mirrors almost constantly without even realizing it, as if it would have done him any good.
In life, so often we’re taught to be in the driver’s seat. That anything short of complete control is irresponsible, or even dangerous. But if your hands are gripping the steering wheel every second of every day, you’re going to miss some great scenery. I kid you not, when our carpool left my driveway and we started toward Route 1 in the direction of the highway, I began to realize just how little I had gazed out at my surroundings in the last two years of driving around York. I noticed buildings I hadn’t known were there, patterns of foliage I had never recognized, and stretches of road that had just completely faded from my awareness in my focus to get from Point A to Point B.
There’s something freeing about releasing control every once in a while. About putting our trust in the universe, or God, or another person to take us where we don’t even realize we need to go. To loosen our death-grip on the steering wheel of our life, chip in for gas, and see where the open road takes us.
I guarantee you’ll be surprised.
“For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” Jeremiah 29:11 (NIV)
Song I’m listening to these days: “Turn the Page,” by Bob Seger.
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