You've Got Stuck in a Moment that You Can't Get Out of

There's a verse in Psalms that says " You know me inside and out. You hold me together. You never fail to stand me tall in Your presence so I can look You in the eye" (Psalm 41:11-12).

I stinkin love that verse. It brings me to my knees every time I reflect on the fact that my Jesus knows me inside and out. He knows every depth of my heart. He knows the good. He knows the bad. He knows the fears, the secrets, the passions, the dreams. He knows it all and He loves me despite it all. And not only does He know every detail of my life, but He holds me together.

In my brokenness, He's a mender. In my hurting, He's a healer. In my changing circumstances, He is constant. In my weakness, He's my strength. And when everythings falling apart, He is the one holding it together. He never fails to stand me tall in His presence so I can look Him in the eye. He. Never. Fails.

Never failing is something that I know nothing about because my life is saturated with times that I have failed. When I reflect on those times, there is a reoccurring theme- I'm relying completely on my individual efforts and I'm failing to look to the One who never fails.

There was a moment this winter that I felt Jesus used as a gentle reminder to whisper to my heart to look to Him when I'm stuck. The irony being that I was literally stuck. As I was backing out of a driveway one of the few days it actually snowed this winter, I backed off the driveway and into the yard, where a friend and I then remained for the next two hours.

It was after a church event so there were several other people there, who attempted to help us get back onto the driveway. Everytime we pushed and the car budged, it seemed like we were about to be free from being stuck, but everytime it resulted in the car sliding deeper into the mud-snow concoction that had been created by our human efforts. We ended up more stuck and upon realizing that the circumstances were too hard for us to be successful, the other people left.

My friend ended up calling her father who in turn called a tow truck, which came to the rescue. What stuck out to me about the tow truck getting us out the bind was that in order to do so, we had to be lifted up. He connected his tow truck machine device to my car and raised us up onto the back of his truck in order to remove us from the place where we were stuck. It required us to look up. To stop trying with our human efforts, and look up and trust that where we were looking was the solution. The tow trunk didn't fail.

When we stopped trying and we looked up, we were able to stop singing that we were " stuck in a moment that we can't get out of" because we were out of it. In that two hour moment, I felt that Jesus was whispering to me that the reason I keep falling back into places I feel stuck is because I'm relying on my human efforts. I'm pushing and I'm pulling and I think I am budging, only to find out that I'm stuck deeper than I was before. BUT, if I stop trying and look to the One who wants to lift me up, He is able and equipped and He will come.

Thinking back on the moment again, I notice a few more things. The people left, but the tow truck was always there waiting to be called upon. And once everyone was gone, and I finally called upon the tow truck, it came. And when it came, the driver didn't ask questions about how come I was stuck or what I did to get there, His concern was to get me out of that place and back on track.

....how cool is it that Jesus is an even better rescuer than a tow truck? How cool is it that He made a way for us that doesn't require looking up a number in the yellow pages? How cool is that He is equipped and able, that He is a God who comes? That He pulls us out of the mud when we're stuck and sets us back on the right track?

Too stinkin cool.