The Rut.

Tuesday, April 12, 2011
The Rut. The alarm goes off. We get up. We turn on the coffee pot. We get in the shower. We brush our teeth. We get dressed. We head out the door to drive the same way to the same job with the same attitude to do the same things as every other day. We come home when we get off and eat supper, go to bed, and sleep. Then goes the alarm, and the routine begins again. That’s called a rut.
Have you ever found yourself in a rut? Not so long ago I found myself in a literal rut. I wrote about it in a blog, so if you read these regularly you may remember it. It involved a church van, my pastor’s backyard, and a late night rescue “tow” from a church member. Once I found myself in the soft mud and the tires began to spin, it was over. I wasn’t going anywhere until someone came along and helped me get some traction again.
The sobering truth is that I was so badly stuck, traction didn’t help much. I couldn’t have gotten out of that rut with boards under my tires or any of that. There was so much mud everywhere that my only hope of getting out of that mud pit was for someone that wasn’t in the mud pit to pull me out. I needed someone out of the rut to get me out of it.
The rut that you may find yourself in today may be comfortable. I’m a person that actually thrives in the rut for the most part, or so I think anyway. I like a routine – it makes it easier to live life with a slight case of OCD when you have a routine. The problem is when I get so captivated by my routine that I begin to get tunnel vision.
When we allow ourselves to fall prey to tunnel vision we don’t see anything but our own little world, and our own little rut. Some of you may not see anything at all wrong with that. But dear friend please realize today that the lost and dying world we have all been called to bring Jesus to is outside our rut! Our tunnel vision steals our focus from impacting lostness and makes us ineffective. What a tragedy!
So today, would you ask God to pull you out of your rut? Beware, there’s a certain degree of risk involved in climbing out of the rut. Your world of familiarity and routine will be challenged, and you may be pushed beyond your comfort zone in many ways. You may have to talk to people and associate with some folks that aren’t exactly “just like you.” You may even be setting yourself up for a calling you never, in your wildest imagination, would have every dreamed you’d be living out. But it’s worth it. It is so worth it. After all, life outside of the rut is more worth living since people are seeing Jesus in you more than ever.
One more bonus: when you’re stuck in the rut and your tires are spinning and not getting you anywhere, have you noticed how much mud you sling? Gossip, hatred, backbiting, betrayal…these are all things that tend to slip into our lives in the rut.
So call out to God for a tow today. He’ll pull you out of the rut and set you on solid ground. And life…well…it’s never been more of an adventure!



That’s just a thought, and I welcome yours.
Until next time,
blake

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