It’s More About Steering Than Braking

1 Timothy 1:12-20

My driver education teacher’s name was Mr. Anderson. Really, he was the baseball and basketball coach but they needed him to teach something so they had him teach people how to drive. Now, Driver’s Ed in rural Iowa was a little bit different than it is around here. We didn’t have the volume of traffic that exists around here so you had to hunt for traffic to get the experience of driving around other cars. We had to drive twenty miles to Iowa Falls to practice parallel parking because that was the closest town that had those kind of parking spaces.

Another difference between Driver’s Ed in Iowa and what I see now is in the cars used for driving. There must have been a rule somewhere that you can’t drive cool cars for Driver’s Ed because we drove a station wagon. And it wasn’t a small or mid-sized station wagon either! It was one of those full-size late 70’s or early 80’s station wagons with the fake wood paneling on the side. It was about 46 feet long and when we had to do one of those safety checks by walking around the car before driving – just the walk around took half the class period. Maybe we learned to drive this car because it doubled as our school’s mini-bus or maybe, it was because they didn’t think we could hurt something that big. Whatever the reason was, when we got to the driving part, we went out in groups of three with Mr. Anderson. In my threesome were Marvin Burns and Bryan Meints. All of us knew how to drive already and Mr. Anderson knew this so we’d usually drive around for a while and then we’d pull off at the edge of a field somewhere and play poker for the rest of our driving time. Mr. Anderson didn’t stay at our school very long.

There’s one thing that always puzzled me about Driver’s Ed. In the big ‘ole station wagon we drove, they put in an extra brake on the passenger side for the driving instructor in case there was an emergency but they never put in an extra steering wheel. Isn’t that a bit odd? Now I understand the reason for putting in the brake but isn’t it a bit strange that there wasn’t an extra steering wheel too? If you’re heading toward oncoming traffic, don’t you want the steering wheel to work just as much as you want the brakes? Do the brakes help you make left or right turns? The only ones I’ve ever seen steer with their brakes are the Dukes of Hazzard when they would slide into a perfect parking position by slamming on the brakes at just the right time.

I’m being a little facetious here but I believe there’s a cultural principle at work here that goes beyond Driver’s Ed. The principle at work is: we are more concerned in life with stopping than we are about steering in the right direction. Stay off drugs, stop smoking, don’t overeat, stop terrorism, don’t hang out with the wrong crowd – these, and many others, are all important messages but the focus is mostly on braking isn’t it?

Many of you know that I like to watch stock car racing. On the shorter tracks, they talk a lot about drivers taking care of the brakes. If a driver rides the brakes too hard, they can seize up and won’t work at all. I think that many of us in our spiritual lives have brakes that might be seizing because we’ve been riding them pretty hard. We can be so focused on the things we need to quit to be a good Christian that we forget steering in the right direction is a big part of our life with Christ.[1]

I wonder if there’s an area of your spiritual life where you’ve been overly focused on braking or quitting something? We say to ourselves, “If I could only stop this sin, then things would be OK. If I could only forgive myself from making this mistake, then life could go on. If I could only stop this from happening in my relationships, then things would be better.” These can all be important things, but they’re not the only important things. Are you riding the brakes pretty hard?

Some of us come by this way of thinking very naturally. A lot of the messages we have heard in church have had more to do with braking than steering. I grew up in a community where the Baptist kids were looked down on in the church if we went to dances. Dancing was something you just didn’t do if you were a Christian! Can you hear the brakes? Now, there are a lot of things that happen at dances that could get a high school student in trouble but is it really because of the dancing? My folks let me go to dances and the only thing I ever found bad about Baptists going to dances was the Baptist dancing! I’ve never known a Baptist who really knew what they were doing on the dance floor. Sometimes we ride the brakes pretty hard don’t we?

In Paul’s first letter to Timothy, I think he helps us to understand that life in Christ is as much about steering in directions of growth as it is about braking to avoid the sinful life. The emphasis in following Jesus is not just about quitting the bad stuff, it’s also about steering toward God’s grace.

Paul’s emphasis on steering over braking is consistent with what Jesus taught. When Jesus first called his disciples, He didn’t say to them, “Follow me, and I’ll teach you how to be a great quitter!”[2] No! Jesus urged people to follow so that they could be ushered into God’s kingdom. One of the greatest criticisms Jesus had of the religious establishment was that they only knew how to slam on the brakes. “But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you lock people out of the kingdom of heaven. For you do not go in yourselves, and when others are going in, you stop them.”[3] This is the language of braking!

In looking at Paul’s life, he had a lot of reasons to put on the brakes but he did not let this overwhelm God’s call for him to be a messenger of grace. He was a blasphemer, a persecutor of Christians, and someone who used violence to carry out his ideals (v. 13). These are all good reasons to put on the brakes in life. These are all things he needed to come to terms with and do something about. But what’s most important about Paul’s example is that when he put on the brakes, he didn’t just stop life. He steered toward a new direction. Mr. Anderson taught us that when we were driving on the snow-packed roads and we started to slide around, the worst thing we could do was to slam on the brakes. “Steer into the slide and gently apply the brakes,” was his advice. I think that’s what Paul is encouraging Timothy to do in this passage – gently apply the brakes as you steer into spiritual slides. But continue on. Don’t stop! A relationship with God is not one that is focused on stopping. The focus is on being judged by God in the courts of God’s grace. Paul considered himself as one who went into this court of grace and was judged faithful. He was faithful because “...the grace of our Lord overflowed for me...” (v. 14).

Do you know this from experience? Are you one who steers toward the grace of God in your life? When you think about the basis of how you live, are you more focused on quitting the bad stuff or do you steer toward God’s acceptance of you as a sinner who is saved by grace? Paul considered himself the champion of sinners yet he still said with confidence, “...I received mercy...” (v. 16).

In the crowded city of Tokyo, Japan, there is a city ordinance stating that no one can erect a sky scraper, or any other building, that shuts off completely anyone else’s view of the sun. The Japanese feel that for at least a portion of every day, each person has a right to see the sun.[4]

I think there’s a good lesson in this for all of us. Many of us have lost sight of Jesus in the midst because we try to quit so many things to be a ‘good Christian.’ We have lost sight of the Son.

My invitation to you this morning is twofold:

1. If you have never steered toward God’s acceptance and forgiveness in your life, I invite you to begin that journey today. Profess your faith in Jesus as your Lord and Savior today.

2. If your faith in Jesus has been more focused on quitting things rather than steering toward Jesus, make today a day of transition.

Amen.

[1] Calvin Miller, in his book, Into the Depths of God, (Minneapolis, MN: Bethany House, 2000), pp. 24-28, talks about this over-focus on not doing things in our spiritual lives.

[4] As told by Calvin Miller, Into the Depths of God (Minneapolis: Bethany House, 2000), p. 31.