The Club

She was sitting in her car that was already parked on the lot of the mall, her arm resting casually on her open car window. I had glanced over and noticed her as I was pulling into the parking spot in front of the mall. I finished parking and reached across to grab my purse off of the passenger seat when I realized there was something odd about what I had just seen. I sat back and glanced over to her again. There was an empty parking space between her car and our truck so I had a clear view of her sitting there. I smiled as I stepped out of our vehicle and looked again. Apparently it’s not staring if you look away once in awhile.

This woman was sitting in an older car, looking quite relaxed and ignoring the world. The minute I opened my truck door I could hear her radio playing quite loudly, the voices of whatever talk show she was listening too were crystal clear. She was quite a large woman, not that I have anything against larger women being one myself, but what struck me was the fact that with as little room as there was between her and her steering wheel she had, and this is why I needed to look twice, the club attached to her steering wheel. Hmmm, that looked a bit awkward. Though everything looked extremely uncomfortable and tight she seemed quite content. I walked away from her blaring radio and the picture that she just gave me with a quiet laugh. What was she thinking? Was she protecting herself or the car? But the window was wide open so if someone was to come over and try to car jack her car how in the world would they even get her out of there? But maybe that was the point. You want my old car, well good luck getting me out from behind the steering wheel.

I thought about this lady and the bizarre image she made a few times while I was wandering the mall. This woman was willing to protect her possession to the point of endangering herself. It all seemed a little strange to me. Was that old car worth risking her life? Not just because there might be a car thief around, because somehow I doubt that her old car was high on a hit list of cars to steal, but because she was so jammed into her steering wheel and the club I wondered if she was actually permanently wedged in there!

I thought about our appointment today to see Dr. Schroeder to hear the test results of Wes’ MRI that he had last week and then I remembered this woman sitting in her car feeling completely safe with her Club locked in position on her steering wheel and her body jammed into place in the drivers seat. And though I had laughed at the picture this woman offered me I realized that I was more like her than I first thought. How often don’t I say, “Please God help me! Get me out of this situation or help me to stop feeling this way! ” but, I have jammed myself so tightly into a corner that I don’t allow Him room to work. I make sure that I have all my safety measures in place just in case God forgets about my request. My wrinkles and worry lines can attest to how well my personal safety measures are working! Not well at all!!

A number of years ago I was the MC for a stress seminar in a local church and I’ll never forget the one session where we all had a yellow strip of paper in front of us and the speaker encouraged us to pick up that piece of paper and fold it accordion style. After we had folded it we pulled it apart so that it looked like a set of stairs and we were supposed to use it as a reminder of how we will often ask God for help and then we should picture ourselves as we walk up those stairs to the cross lugging our cares and worries, we then drop them at the cross, thank God for his help and begin walking away.

Walking down those yellow steps.

Sometimes we might make it halfway down, sometimes we might even make it to that last step, but then what do we do? Often we make our way back up the stairs, back to the cross and we pick up that heavy load again and lug it straight back down into our lives once more so that we can delude ourselves into believing that we can handle it on our own.

Ah, will we ever learn?

By the looks of that lady sitting in her car on the mall lot with her radio blaring and her Club protection device firmly in place, well, chances are pretty slim that we will ever get it right. But thankfully, our Father has the key to pull that safety device from our lives and He is there to catch us when we might feel like we are free falling down those steps. Even though He has been in control the whole time.

After all, He is our Father.

Who else cares about us any more than Him?

Now I think I’m going to go and find myself and yellow strip of paper and start folding like a mad woman!

“If you are tired from carrying heavy burdens, come to me and I will give you rest.” Matthew 11:28