Slow down! Semi-trucks, mountain roads, recklessness, and forced rest

On rest and semi-trucks

I watched a semi-truck fly down a mountain road. It was reckless and losing control, supernaturally, the guard rails kept it on the road. But I could tell, if it kept that pace and didn’t slow down immediately, the truck would fly clear over the edge at the next big bend in the road.

Suddenly, I saw the semi going in the opposite direction, so it must have survived the curve in the road without flying off the edge. Also supernaturally, the truck was now gaining elevation on one of those steep emergency off-ramps designed to stop trucks if the brakes go out or if they lose control.

I immediately knew this was a call to prayer.

A reckless pace

Have you been going-going-going nonstop lately? Does your pace of life feel out of control?

I’m not saying it’s by choice. You might have had one crisis after the other to tend to. Your circumstances aren’t slowing down to give you any reprieve.

Sometimes, it is by choice. Maybe you’ve been going too hard doing good things like care-taking or overworking in your ministry or job. Out of control can come by means of good things too.

Other times, we deal with tragedy after crisis over and over. It’s not the pace we would choose. But one hit after the other pummels us and threatens to throw us over the edge and we can’t make it stop.

Pedal to the metal

We are created to handle trauma well in short spurts, but our bodies can get stuck in trauma loops. Then we relieve the trauma over and over and our bodies and minds don’t understand that it happened once in the past. We relive the whole thing all over again and our bodies think it’s happening to us again and again and again in real time, even if it’s not.

This is like driving with your foot stuck on the gas, pedal to the metal. It feels reckless, but you can’t seem to get unstuck and slow down. Now add crisis situations and that’s like driving pedal to the metal down a mountain and not just a long straight country road.

Sometimes, we create our own crazy-making just because our brains are stuck in fight or flight mode and we don’t know what it’s like to not be in that mode.

So whether you are flying off the cuff by your own doing or by circumstances or trauma loops out of your control, there’s a way out.

Guard rails

Prayers are the supernatural guard rails that keep you from flying off the handle. Your prayers and the prayers of the people. They will keep you in bounds like the bumpers on beginner bowling alleys. Constant prayer will keep you safe and help slow you down.

Emergency off-ramps

But it gets to a point where only a dramatic emergency full-stop off-ramp can flip the switch, turn it around, and save us.

I’ve noticed over the years that this kind of emergency full-stop takes many forms. Sometimes, its through job loss. Sometimes, it’s through loss of relationships. Often, it’s through health. Injury, an accident, hospitalization, or chronic illness. These demand we physically stop all our crazy making.

This sheds fresh light on Psalm 23.

“He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me besides still water. He restores my soul.”

Psalm 23

When our life is crazy-making, Jesus makes us lie down. And in restorative green pastures, nonetheless.

Brakes and breaks

Someone once taught me that in Hebrew culture, when a lamb ran away, the shepherd would break the lamb’s leg, stint it to heal, and retrain it to stay near.

We can judge this as seeming harsh, but that’s because we don’t have a paradigm for how much harsher it would’ve been for the lamb if he was outside the safe bounds of the shepherd’s care. We also don’t understand that the healed lamb would now have even stronger bones and foundation.

The “momentary affliction” would save the lamb’s very life in the long-game. The shepherd sees the bigger picture and what’s really at stake.

I believe the same is true when we get sick or injured. Not saying God caused it. But He can sure redeem those moments where we are are put on bed rest to finally get some of our attention and help us see the long-game bigger picture.

I call these moments a “forced rest.”

But it doesn’t always have to get that extreme.

How to not fly off the handle

We don’t have to be forced to rest. Here’s a revolutionary thought… We can also learn to choose rest.

And the path to rest is much simpler and less intimidating than we can make it:

1. Take your sabbath. Take your full-stop emergency off-ramp once a week. Totally get off the crazy-making path and pace. And use that day to turn your entire attention to Jesus. This helps us reorient and face the right direction.
2. Slow down and pray throughout the week, and pray with others too. In doing so, you put up guard rails and bumpers to keep you in safe bounds and sustainable healthy pace.

If you’re honest and you don’t really want to spend time in prayer or in the Word, here’s a boost for you.

A higher place

And now, I hear the Lord whisper, “Come away with me.”

Won’t you do that this weekend?

Slow down and steal away to the mountain tops with Jesus?

Take the off-ramp, that extreme incline that will bring you to a full stop with a higher altitude, and let him show you his higher perspective.

I guarantee you that all the muddled things will be clearer and more beautiful from up there.

Til next time, Peace be with you and toodle-loo!