Promise for Today - Learning the Lessons

Hi! I'm back - on a (somewhat) limited basis. According to the doctor, complete healing is projected to take 3-6 months, but doctors practice medicine. Our Father is the Creator, the Great Physician, Jehovah Rapha, our Healer. And His Word is the final Word - 1 Peter 2:24 declares that Christ suffered the stripes on His back to pay for our healing, amen? So, if you'll bear with me, I will pick up with using other's encouraging words where I can copy and paste (with their permission) until my arms and hands are restored to full capacity for unlimited keyboard use. Thanks for the prayers and well wishes. We don't need to always understand, but we DO need to always trust Him. His plans and timing are perfect as is everything He does. And God is faithful.

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Today's comes from Pastor Christopher Glotzbach, of Muncie, IN, USA

This morning on our way home from the gym, Brittany and I pulled out behind a truck that was going 10 MPH below the speed limit.

It should be illegal to get as annoyed as I was before 6:00 AM. But if I'm being honest, I found myself in a very judgmental place. 
Thoughts like:

"This guy shouldn't be on the road."

I was a little embarrassed by how badly I wanted to lay on the horn—just to encourage him to speed up.  But again, it was 6:00 AM.

So I slowed down and tried to be okay with not getting home as quickly as I would have liked. Then we came to the first stop sign.

He came to a complete stop and then sat there for what felt like forever before moving forward. Here comes the judgment again:

"What is going on with this dude?"

At the next stop sign, we stopped under a streetlamp and for the first time I could see the bed of his truck. It was piled high with materials. Nothing was strapped down. It looked like enough lumber and supplies to build a shed.

And then I sensed the Holy Spirit whisper something that stopped me in my tracks:

"Christopher, sometimes people are carrying heavy burdens and it requires them to move at a different pace."

Man, that was convicting. How often do I pass judgment without knowing what someone else is carrying? 

The reality is that if he had driven any faster, he would have risked losing some of that load. It could have ruined the materials—or worse, hurt someone else on the road. Suddenly, my frustration turned into gratitude. Well... for a moment.

Then I caught myself thinking, "He still could have tied it down."

Apparently the sanctification process wasn't quite finished.

But because he didn't, God used a slow-moving truck to expose something in me: how quickly I can assume, judge and criticize when I don't have the full story.

And I wonder how often we do the same thing with people.

Someone seems distant.
Someone seems slow.
Someone seems distracted.
Someone seems frustrated.
And we immediately create a story about them without knowing the burdens they're carrying.

I love what Jesus says in Matthew 11:28-30:

"Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light."

What a beautiful invitation. When we're overwhelmed, burdened, exhausted, or carrying more than we should, Jesus invites us to come to Him. Not only that, He invites us to yoke ourselves to Him—to walk alongside Him and learn from Him.

And notice what He says we'll learn: Gentleness. Humility.

Those don't come naturally to me. Maybe they don't come naturally to you either. But Jesus says, "Learn from me."

So today my prayer is simple:

Jesus, teach me to be gentle and humble in heart. Teach me to stay tethered to You—not just on the hard days, but on the ordinary ones. The days when life is moving too slowly. The days when I'm frustrated. The days when I think I know what's going on in someone else's life.

Thank You for using a slow truck before 6:00 AM to remind me that I still have a long way to go in becoming more like You.

And thank You that Your grace meets me on that journey.

Amen