In the early hours of October 25, 2014, a young man, 19, watched the blacktop of Poticaw Bayou Road disappear underneath his headlights near Vancleave, Mississippi. The road stretched before him endlessly, and the lights ate up the blacktop.
At 19, he had his entire life before him. There was nothing in his way. All he had to do was fix a course to follow, and he could be Dale Earnhardt, leaving his competition in the dust.
The racetrack of life was his for the taking.
Then the horrific happened. Michael Shane McCoy drifted just a few feet out of his lane, and his world ended forever. His vehicle crossed the line, and he impacted another car dead center in a head-on collision.
Sometimes we drift a few feet off track spiritually, and our lives are changed forever. Life is going along, we have the radio playing, and our headlights eat up the blacktop before us. What is there to bother us? Life is good, life is sweet, and ooh, but are we ever in control!
Then, all of a sudden, we see bright lights heading our direction, and the realization hits us: We are about to be involved in a head-on collision!
We recognize the sensation. We feel lost. We’re making decisions we know we shouldn’t, but somehow we can’t stop. Soon, we begin to feel overwhelmed. It could be our spending, maybe time spent in online gaming, whether “farming,” puzzles, or the like. Maybe all we do is sit in our easy chair glued to the television.
For some of us, depression creates a cloud of early morning fog, or for others, it’s a fight with our spouse that becomes the distracting bug splatters on our windshield. Even the cacophony of our children screaming out over the radio speakers pulls our attention from the road.
We still read our Bible and go to church, but our attention is distracted. We may be only a few feet off course, but that’s all it takes to cause a head-on collision.
How can we get back in our lane? The fog’s not going to disappear, just because we want it to. The bug splatters? Running the wipers sometimes makes them worse. And the radio…well, the controls are broken, and we’ve another fifteen years before that switch is repaired.
We have to get focused again, casting off that overwhelmed feeling, and get our life back. Here are nine steps to staying in the correct lane:
Step 1:
Start the day reading the word of God from the Bible or an inspirational book or website.
Psalm 119:105 tells us: “Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.”
Step 2:
Spend time thanking the Lord for every blessing we can think of.
Hebrews 12:28 says: “Therefore let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, and thus let us offer to God acceptable worship, with reverence and awe…”
Step 3:
Pray Psalm 91:2 over ourselves daily for protection. “I will say to the Lord, ‘My refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust.’ ”
The other 15 verses in the psalm aren’t bad, either.
Step 4:
Make healthier choices when eating. 1 Corinthians 10:31 speaks to our need for good choices.
“So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.”
Step 5:
Exercise, even if it is to our mailbox and back. Hebrews 12:12-13 in The Message translation may be speaking of spiritual exercise, but the lesson is a practical one, too.
“So don’t sit around on your hands! No more dragging your feet! Clear the path for long-distance runners so no one will trip and fall, so no one will step in a hole and sprain an ankle. Help each other out. And run for it!”
Step 6:
Get in bed earlier, and before heading off to sleep, pray Proverbs 24:19: “Fret not yourselves because of evildoers…”
We will have sweeter dreams if we let God deal with the stress.
Step 7:
Get plenty of hugs from our family. Appropriate physical contact with those we love is how we maintain our relationships.
1 John 4:7-8 reminds us: “Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God…”
Step 8:
Remember we are children of God and not losers.
Read in Romans 8:17-19: “And if children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ…”
Step 9:
Remove ourselves from those around us that add to our stress.
Psalm 1:1-6 pretty much sums it up: “Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners…”
Follow these nine steps, and we won’t have to worry about wandering into the wrong lane. Even in the small hours of the morning, when all we can see is the blacktop in front of our hood, we will remain alert and focused on Jesus, and we will avoid every head-on collision.
Michael Shane McCoy had something very special taken from him that cool October morning. Let’s not let the devil take our walk with the Lord from us, all for a few feet of road and a head-on collision we never saw coming.
It’s what we don’t see coming that takes us down. Let’s make sure Jesus lights every step of our way.
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Code: DD.J.26.14.vp.Special Guest Contributor Diane Hall