What does your "ride" look like?
The secret to a happy life...
In Hannah Whitall Smith’s classic tome The Christian’s Secret of a Happy Life she writes about Joseph and the chariot that bore him to triumph. But the “chariot” was not what we think when we think of ancient two-wheeled vehicles…for Smith they were the trials that he had to endure.
When Joseph’s brothers were before him cowering in fear Joseph could tell them to relax for “God sent me.” And God used an unusual mode of transportation.
Joseph’s “chariot” was betrayal, getting sold, slavery, wrongful accusation and imprisonment. Our “chariots” will probably not be as dramatic as all that (although they may be!) but we can pray that we accept our trials as “chariots” with the same kind of aplomb that Joseph did.
No, our ride to triumph will be more likely along the lines of irritation with a personality in our life, or family break-down, or church squabbles, or financial hardship, or difficulties at our places of employment or…well, or almost anything that falls far short of the triumph Smith talked about for Joseph.
Smith seems to intimate that one of the “secrets” of a happy life is to embrace the ride with steadfastness and spiritual foresight and even joy. Chariot rides, although I have never been on one, are undoubtedly filled with bumps, dust and the occasional sharp turn.
Joseph’s certainly was.
But out there ahead of us, if we have the faith to see the ride through, is glory.
“Lord, give me the eyes to see my ‘ride’ as one that you have provided (or allowed) enroute to a great season of my life. Amen.”
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From Palmer Chinchen:
"My brothers and I had traveled to the western edge of Zimbabwe to raft the Zambezi River. We boarded our raft at the base of the Victoria Falls....
"Our guide [said], 'When the raft flips …' There was no 'If the raft flips' or 'Or on the off chance we get flipped.' But 'When the raft flips.' He went on, '… stay in the rough water. You will be tempted to swim toward the stagnate water at the edge of the banks. Don't do it. Because it is in the stagnate water that the crocs wait for you. They are large and hungry. Even when the raft flips, stay in the rough water.'
"Stagnancy will kill your spirit …. The church of tomorrow must resist stagnancy. God needs us out there in the rough waters, pouring our lives into people …. Live in the whitewater. Live where it's just a little bit uncertain and unsafe." (Palmer Chinchen, PhD, True Religion/David C. Cook, 2010)