June’s WOW Life in the Fast Lane and the Narrow Road

Coffee Hour @ Chicklit Power...

Matthew 7:14 “For the gate is narrow and the road is hard that leads to life, and there are few who find it.”

Thanks so much for joining me today for our Coffee Hour and more of our WOW for June. Can you believe it; June’s about gone! Whew, talk about the fast lane! Grab your coffee and your strand of faith, and let’s get back to my car situation where I had completely blown by a dummy light, which turned out to be a real warning sign!

There is a double edged sword to being in ministry because what I teach, I must live and as I write from my heart to yours, I have to tell you, I have told/taught my trench students over and over again to pay attention to the emotional dashboard, analogizing it to the dashboard in our cars! Well, hello! My car was trying to tell me something and I was too busy to listen! Really!?!  Yes, because I was too busy, and didn’t make the time to take the time, I blew right by the warning signs.

A few days after telling my husband the first time, I got in my car…in a hurry, and saw the light again. Hey, at least I was slowing down enough to see it! I dug into my memory bank, deeper … farther … oh, yeah, there it is! I remembered! This light was trying to tell me something about my tire; that’s right. I breathed a sigh of relief and pushed it back, though not as far down, but still down the hallway of my mind, moving on to my next destination. It could wait for later, I thought. Besides, the car felt fine. I didn’t feel anything different.

Well, later didn’t come until a week later, and only after my husband had asked me, for the “inth” time, if I had gotten it taken care of and got tired of hearing me say, “I haven’t had time,” did he take it to our local tire place. When he came home, he was a tiny bit irritated with me, letting me know that, unbeknownst to me, my tire was screaming for help and what apparently started as a little hole, became a bigger one and had to be replaced!

How in the world did my car even know that? As I realized the possible ramifications and just how many angels He must have had watching over me as I went here and there and everywhere on the crazy freeways of California, and how wonderful my husband is to take care of things I just don’t make the time to take the time for…my heart squeezed with humble joy, knowing I am loved that much. Oh, how I take so many things for granted.

I hugged my honey, and thanked him for taking care of it for me, for making me feel taken care of as well, and didn’t think too much more about it…until the next day when I got in the car to go to a meeting that required some freeway driving.

I don’t even remember where it was I was going; all I remembered noticing a difference in how the car drove! It was ever so slight, but I noticed that the ride was smoother and there wasn’t this pull … to the right.

That made me think; wow, life can be like that, right? Little by little, day by day, if we don’t do our tune-ups, do our maintenance, meet with our Maker, aka the Tour Guide, life can tend to pull us off track, off the narrow road and onto a path more traveled, and before we know it, we are going with the flow and against God’s will. When that happens, Coffee Hour Friend, stop, right where you are and allow yourself to be guided back to the narrow road!

Love from above,

Evinda

June’s WOW Life in the Fast Lane and the Narrow Road

Coffee Hour @ Chicklit Power...

Matthew 7:14 “For the gate is narrow and the road is hard that leads to life, and there are few who find it.”

Welcome to Coffee Hour @ Chicklit Power and thanks for joining us for this special time of the month, our Words of Wisdom and Weapons of Warfare. Oh, how awesome it is when something in our lives collides with a circumstance and fills it with wonder, with hope, widening our knowledge while narrowing the road in our journey. Come on; grab your coffee and let’s go talk about the narrow road.

As I read this verse, and did a little research on it, I was reminded of something that actually brought it to life for me. Before I tell you how and why, I have to ask you this: did you know that gate and road are analogous to “way” and that “life” is used in this context as eternal life? So let’s rewrite it just to wrap our hearts around it: For the way is narrow and the way is hard that leads to eternal life!

Wow, in other words, the high way to heaven is the hard way, a narrow way but the good news is that the closer we stick to our Travel Guide through this life, the more we’ll hear and see the warning signs and the less we’ll detour. I must admit, there are times when I’m moving so fast I forget to acknowledge He’s even there.

As I was driving along the other day, I noticed one of my, what I refer to as, dummy lights on the dashboard … “what is that telling me?” I wondered aloud. Well that thought was fleeting, as I pulled off the freeway headed towards my first to-do of the day, thinking about the rest of the day’s appointments and things I needed to get done at the office … until I got back in the car several hours later and there it was again.

Later on, I told my husband that the light was on, thought it was something to do with the tire, but I wasn’t sure. His response: “You should take it by Good Year tomorrow.” Again I pushed it into the crevices of my brain!

Oh, how many times have we done that when temptation of any kind strikes? You know what I mean, when we ignore that little still voice of the soul that warns us not to do something? I know I have my hands raised and anything else I can to admit: I’m guilty! Those warnings are there for a reason: to keep us from danger and/or harm!

Our bodies give us signals; for example: I know my body doesn’t do well with too much sugar, especially the chocolate kind, but it’s even more dangerous for me right before bed. Why? I’m so glad you asked: Because I wind up in a full-blown hormonal panic attack! Do you think that has stopped me from doing it again? Uh, well, no. I have repeated it but not very often. I try to pay attention to that warning within.

But what about those life-altering warnings that had we heeded, just maybe things would be different; for example, a not-so-healthy relationship choice, or a temptation to return to an old not-so-healthy habit/behavior because, what the heck, everyone else does it?

When we are so busy living life in the fast lane, we can tend to lose our way, wind up on the wider road, go in a direction we shouldn’t…but the good news is that God can right the wrong turn, the wrong choice, the wrong road taken…if we slow down enough to take the time to make the time to seek Him in all things. The farther we stray from His Spirit, the more we’ll miss those warning signs and the wider the road comes. The wider the road, the faster life goes. I know this because in ministry, though I know what I believe and am confident of my relationship with Him, life can get very fast and though the road is still narrow, I can tend to lose my way if I get even just a step ahead.

Join me tomorrow for the conclusion to this month’s WOW! And remember, keep your eyes and ears open for the warning signs that try and keep you away from the road less traveled…and try to avoid the fast lane!

Love from above,

Evinda