Keeping in the Groove

A while ago I wrote a devotional about keeping in the groove.  It was written about drag racing.  Yet just the other day, when we had a freeze after a light rain, that saying took on a whole different meaning.  As you might know, most of the best stories come out of strange things that happen to each of us.  Well, this is no different.

Even though it was winter when we experienced this light rain, the roads were initially fine.  My wife was a little fearful to drive to work as, just three days before, a cold front came through after a drizzle and turned the roads to ice.  She’d had three accidents in less than a mile from the house had had to be pulled out from two of them.  You can understand how apprehensive she was.

We were doing fine for about six miles when the temperature dropped.  As luck would have it, I was on the top of a large, steep hill.  Just in front of us was a salt truck, so I turned to her and told her everything would be all right if I could just keep in the groove.  Now that saying might not mean a lot to everyone but drag racers will all understand.  We just stayed a safe distance behind the salt truck, made it down the hill fine, and then followed it until we reached dry pavement.

I have thought about this since then and have concluded that this is what Jesus was saying when He spoke to the Pharisees in Matthew 12:34 “O generation of vipers, how can ye, being evil speak good things? For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh.”  The Pharisees were choosing their words, trying to be spiritual, yet that was not part of their true lives.

But when an individual gets into an emergency situation, they speak from the heart…like using a term that is part of their life or cussing up a storm (if that happens to be part of their regular life.)  So if saying things that hurt others is coming too naturally to us, how should we respond?  The old saying, “practice makes perfect” is kind of what I’m trying to say.  Or as the Bible says, “Whoso keepeth his mouth and his tongue keepeth his soul from troubles.” Proverbs 21:23

The more we hang around with the right people, and live the right life, we will act the right way it an unexpected situation. The best place is to start with “Jesus First.”  You can’t go wrong by following Him.

Dan Laterza