Take the Wheel

Winter has finally arrived for real in Chicago! We had our first snow that actually accumulated on the ground Thursday night and caught many of us “off guard.” I left for school at about 6:45 AM that morning, so the roads were still very slick. There is nothing like the first true snow/ice experience of winter to making driving treacherous no matter how mild it may be compared to later storms. With hundreds of teenagers on the icy road (many of whom were driving in these conditions for the first time) the risks are very high. I saw numerous people try to accelerate from stops signs at a normal pace and yet slid across the slippery pavement. I myself had to adjust how fast I accelerated after I realized that just doing what I normally do was not going to work. With the ice, I knew that four-wheel drive would do little good, and decided to I take a little longer to get to school because of the driving conditions, but I still made it to class on time and the most important thing was safety.

The only instance where I felt my safety was in question was when I turned off of U.S. 41 onto a small street which led to the parking lot my spot was at. I normally turn the corner at about 20 mph off of 41, and then I am at the speed limit of 20 when I get on that road. However, this turn is a little tight because of it only being a one lane street, with a median dividing it from the oncoming traffic on the other side. I decided that I would turn the corner about 5 mph slower, being cautious about attempting to slow down too much on U.S. 41 but not turning the corner onto the smaller street too quickly. What a “rookie” mistake I made! Apparently the corner area was much icier than any other patch of pavement I had driven on before. I turned onto the street at about 15 mph. Immediately I heard the anti-lock brakes kicking in; at first I thought this was normal. Even with the anti-lock brakes, I was still going to fast considering the ice. The vehicle skidded across the ice headed directly for several bushes and a brick wall on the median. I felt part of the vehicle thump over the curb as I kept my foot pressed against the brake as I had been taught in driving school and turned the wheel sharply to the right to avoid the brick wall and the bushes. I missed one of the bushes by only about 2 feet. I then drove over the curb back onto the street, safe and sound. I was only a turn away from reaching the parking lot so I carefully drove the truck over there. I then checked the vehicle for any damage that may have been inflicted. All I noticed was that the front tires had some scrapes and that one of the rims had been scratched a little. I made sure the tires had not been punctured and attempted to start the car again. When I was satisfied, I then proceeded to class. Throughout the day I worried about the tire deflating because of the trauma along with the cold weather. However, the tires were still suitable to drive the truck home. In the end, my parents and I decided that we needed to replace the tires anyway, along with lots of other repairs that need to be made on the vehicle (it’s ten years old) and have the rim polished up. That moment where I was skidding toward the brick wall was the most frightening part of the entire experience. That thought of fight for or even losing control of your own life.

Without God who is in control of our fate? Obviously we must either choose to accept Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior or deny him, but what about the control aspect of it? When we deny Christ, we are saying that we desire to be in complete control of our own lives. We want to decide what to do for a career, where to live, how to act, and what to believe, all without God’s influence. If we choose to accept Christ as our own personal Savior, then we are giving him sovereign control of our lives.

Even when we desire to have that control for ourselves, not accepting Christ does not guarantee we will always have that control. We can lose that control because we are humans and make errors, just like I made the error or trying to turn the corner too quickly.

If you ask me, I would much rather have God in control of my life. Why? Because God does not make errors. He is perfect, flawless, blameless, and all-knowing. He knows what we are going to think, say, or do even before it happens.

By not letting God “take the wheel” we are setting ourselves up for the potential of losing control. We may not “wreck” our lives physically, but there will be consequences for our failings.

We may suffer from depression, in which we are never happy with where we are in life, not matter how successful or unsuccessful we may be in the world’s eyes.

We might be brought down by greed in which we always desire to have more, do more, and be more than we are in a present state. There is nothing wrong with striving for the best, but when it becomes self-consuming, it has become your god.

Without God being in control of our lives, we will never be truly satisfied. All things accomplished in the name of the world and man will mean nothing in eternity.

There is a secular saying that “You can’t take it with you” and that runs parallel with a bible verse from one of Jesus’s parables:

Mark 8:36 (NIV):
“What good is it for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul?”

What good will in do if you do not accomplish something to last for eternity. Unless you are living in God’s will you will never be happy and run the risk of losing control. So tell God, “Take the Wheel.” You’re the expert driver.