Packing up and driving from Dallas Texas in a 15ft U-Haul, pulling my mother-in laws Chrysler Sebring with a tow dolly provided me with a number of life lessons, I believe.

#1 You Can’t Backup

#2 Stuff is Heavy and Bulky and Easier to Get Than Get Rid Of

#3 You Can fit 1500 square feet of house in a 15ft Truck

Life is lived moving forward and when you put a car towing dolly behind a u-haul you had better see how you are going to pull through somewhere before you pull in or try to turn around somewhere. Unlike a trailer you can back up with, (however awkward) with a car dolly it just jack knifes every time no matter what you do and they tell you that, (if you read the instructions).

This wasn’t my first rodeo with a car Dolly, back in 1984 I moved from Georgetown, Texas to Grand Junction Colorado towing a 1977 Grand Prix. Exhausted from loading about 2am in the morning somewhere in the middle of west Texas on a two lane highway we decided to find a motel to get some sleep. We saw a place but not very nice that had a vacancy sign lit as we headed into this little town, thinking we could find something nicer we decided to head further into town.

No other place had a vacancy sign and as we reached the other end of the town down a steep hill there was a sign that said the next town was 40 miles we decided to turn back. That is where I made the huge mistake of not knowing it takes about two football fields to turn around a 20ft u-haul and a 1977 Grand Prix (Land Yacht), I thought I swung wide enough but as we tried to come around our path was blocked by a small Billboard that will forever haunt me.

At the bottom of a hill across the road, 2am in the morning with a billboard blocking the way I attempted to backup,…Jack knife…pull forward…back…jack knife..pull forward back….jack knife. You get the picture this could have gone on all night but we were at the bottom of this hill and I heard a car coming and fearful that our broadside position on the road wouldn’t be seen in time, I made a fateful decision, I put the u-haul in granny low pulled up to the billboard and gently as I could … RAN IT OVER, then came all the way around heading out of town as fast as we could, terrified and ashamed, I was no longer the least bit tired, that Adrenalin Rush lasted all the way to Grand Junction to my shame we never looked back never made it right have no idea what the sign was for or who it belonged to.

33 years later as I was hooking up this tow dolly this week, I knew what I was in for and every place we pulled into had a flow through easy way out.  Luke 14:28 Jesus taught :

For which one of you, when he wants to build a tower, does not first sit down and calculate the cost to see if he has enough to complete it?

Life is so much like that,; I get myself into things without considering the way out. In life I think I kinda have a tow dolly latched on and if I try and back up I jack knife so I best see the way through before getting into it.

Interestingly in the book of Luke that’s the illustration, Jesus used for us to count the cost of being a disciple and shorty there after He says in verse 32

So then, none of you can be My disciple who does not give up all his own possessions.

As I said, Stuff is Heavy and Bulky and Easier to Get Than Get Rid Of. I recently heard of a family who made the commitment to not take a bag of stuff in the house with out taking a bag of stuff out of the house. I like that a LOT!!!

Putting  1500 square feet of household into a 15ft u-haul is a thing of beauty and amazement what a wonder that boxes and beds,dressers, washers, dryers and clothes call all be so neatly arranged into such a small place, but I think I am not seeing a spec of it. Our lives seem so big to us but they are a microbe of what is really going on. Think on what Jesus said next about being a disciple in verses  34-35:

“Therefore, salt is good; but if the salt should lose its flavor, how shall it be made salty again?  It is not suitable for the soil or for a manure heap—it is thrown out. The one who has ears to hear, let him hear.”

A salty disciple thirsts so much for God he is like the hero in the movie “Robinson Caruso on Mars” who started feeding his monkey peanut butter crackers so he would get thirsty enough to find water. People see your joy in the living water as we talked about last week gushing as you sing to Him. Nothing like gushing water to make you thirsty.

Jesus knows our stuff has a hold on us, we think we are drinking from it but we are dying of thirst because our salt is tainted, lost its saltiness.

We all lose everything, you ain’t hooking up a tow dolly on your way out of this world, so now is our chance to let go. Some of the stuff I hang onto is spiritual stuff unforgiveness,  I tow it around too, I posses it, or it posses me may be more like it.

My debts, you owe me!!!

Jesus, help me let go; a whole lot of possessions, (physical and Spiritual) are weighing me down making it hard to turn around and repent turn to the Rock and sing for the Living Water that restores my soul.

 

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