As I dodged a pot hole and avoided a bumper at the outer rim, (this truly happened by the way) I could not help but make an analogy between potholes and God. Just go with me...this is how my brain works.
To all my sisters in Christ who have not fully understood the amazing redeeming ability of our Creator, I share this with you....as I have experienced it.
Scripture calls Jesus our redeemer. (Ephesians 1:7-8)
What is the definition of redeem? I had an idea but it is one of those words that is really hard to grab ahold of. What does the dictionary say?
After knowing this, seeing Christ as my redeemer is much more clear. Scripture tells us that when we accept Christ as our savior, He redeems us from our sins and we get to be with Him, for eternity. Now, that is so huge. The idea of all that is sometimes too big for my lil' brain. Know what I mean? I needed God to explain how Christ as my redeemer was a good thing for my everyday, ordinary, run of the mill existence. After all, I am just a regular girl with a husband to make happy, kids to raise, a house to clean and laundry to get done. I needed more than just these big concepts. As I searched and asked for help with this question, God was once again faithful to help me out. (this is where the pot hole analogy comes in ;0)
Our lives are like the road. Our sins are like all those potholes. Now, these potholes could be something that we have done on purpose, knowing it was a sin, or they could be something that we didn't realize was a sin until later and/or the potholes are left by other peoples' sins. (I am sure you will agree that a persons actions effect more than just that one person.)
With all this in mind, as we travel down the road of our life, we are bound to come across potholes. Some are HUGE and cause us to stumble and there is just no way around it. Others are kind of small and if we go over them, just so, we seem to miss them completely. However, when we least expect it, those same small potholes catch us off guard and we run right over them and the result can be a dented fender or a bent bumper. The reality is, those potholes need to be filled in. Something needs to go IN them so the road we travel is smooth and passable.
Let's be real. What do potholes look like?
Here is a list that is by no means exhaustive. (remember, these potholes can be in your life because of you or because of someone else) It is important to remember, no matter HOW they got there, they are there and need to be dealt with.
loneliness self-centeredness promiscuity anxiety
abandonment cruelty abortion panic
debt impatience drugs grumbling
depression rudeness alcohol grouchiness
anger saying too much over spending passive aggression
jealousy not saying enough over eating holier than though-ness
bitterness pride under eating gossipy
boredom ungrateful heart worry physically abused/abusive
My friends...I could go on and on.
Now, what do you fill your potholes with?
If they are not filled correctly, the patch just pops out and often becomes worse than it was before. I think it is important to realize that some things on the above list are things that we might use to fill in our potholes. For example...if we were abandoned as a young girl, we might fill in that emptiness with promiscuity. If we are angry because an unresolved issue from our past, we might fill the pot hole of anger with alcohol or even something less obvious, like grouchiness. If we are prone to being a bit too prideful and think too much of ourselves, we might fall into filling that hole with gossip about other people. See what I mean? So often the sin and what we use to solve it, or fill it in, or deal with it...never actually takes care of it. More often than not, it makes it worse.
Now, in the light of Jesus as our Redeemer, we need to get to a place where we look to Him as the one who can fill in those potholes once and for all. When He fills them, they get filled with the one and only true fix. No need for anything else. The one who created us is the one who wants to free us from what distresses us and harms us. Our "potholes" will not be there to rumble over. BUT...Jesus can not redeem what we have lost, He can not free us from what harms us unless we give Him the go ahead.
Oh, my dear sisters (and brothers) in Christ, when I understood what it meant to have Christ as my redeemer, when I gave him permission to see all my potholes, he went right to work and lovinly filled them in. True, He is still working at it. It is/was a pretty bumpy road but He is accomplishing what He set out to do.
Have you given Him the chance, the ok, to fill in your "potholes"?
This is a question only you can answer.
Blessings.
