When I got married we were, like most young couples, just trying to make it financially. At that time, we just had one car and I didn’t know how to drive. My husband taught be to drive and I had to learn, by using a 5 speed, stick shift, Toyota Celica. That mean that not only did I have the difficulties of learning how to drive a car, I had to learn how to drive a car, with a stick shift. That required hand to foot coordination, between the clutch, the gas pedal and my hand switching gears, and on top of all of that, having to keep my eyes on the road. My hardest challenge, was navigating the hills, coordination of the clutch to gas pedal, and switching the gears. The car would just shut-off. My husband would start hollering, “you are stripping the gears.” The car would make a strange grinding sound and I would be just “stuck in neutral.” I couldn’t move the car forward or backwards, it was in neutral. When a car’s transmission is in neutral, the car cannot move until the transmission is shifted into another gear. By now, I am too frustrated to move forward, so I give up, get out of the car, and change seats with my husband. I leave the driver’s seat and move to the passenger’s seat.
That’s how real life is. Sometimes we are just stuck, we can’t move forward nor backward, we become stuck in neutral.
Our hopes and dreams doesn’t materialize and we become frustrated with a feeling of unhappiness or discontentment. We may become disinterested and place everything on hold, because we are stuck and we can’t focus, and when we lose interest and desire, we are just stuck. It’s a way of God trying to tell you that you don’t belong in the driver’s seat, that He does. We belong in the passenger seat, to allow God to be our driven force, while he navigate our lives.
Imagine you are the gear shift of a five speed car. God will be your driving force, helping you to shift from one gear unto the other. We need Him to take over our lives and allow Him to drive us.
Sometimes, God has to rebuild us, while He retrains us, and to bring things back to our remembrance. In order for Him to start driving, moving us forward, we have to go through multiple gears and speed. Sometimes, He has to take us back to the basic, to get us out of the neutral zone to move us forward. We have to start with the 1st. gear, praying. Praying to God, and having a heart-to-heart talk with Him, as we allow Him to supply us with our daily needs. Then we move to 2nd. gear, trust. Trusting God to guide us and lead us. Allowing God to have His way with us. Then to 3rd. gear, faith. Faith in believing that He is our all-in-all, because it is our faith, our believing and trusting that Christ, will see us through. Some of us can skip a step/gear, and go from 3rd. gear to 5th. gear, it’s just depends on God, but if you are that person, praise be to God. The 4th. gear, is patience. Being patience and staying in prayer, as we wait patiently on God to direct us. The 5th. gear, praise. Praising God through it all and in every situation, during the good times and the bad times, we should always give Him praise. Each step (gear) we take, it moves us forward. The apostle Paul said, “Reaching forward to those things which are ahead. I press toward the goal” (Philippians 3:14-14).
Now I hope and pray that along the way, you don’t accidentally switch the gear into reverse, because if that happens, “woe unto you”, that will be another life’s lesson.
Let’s keep our eyes on the prize, and that’s Jesus, moving forward, and remembering how He brought us through when we were “stuck in neutral.”
