Just keep spinning, just keep spinning

Within a one week span, I got my truck stuck in the sand - twice. A little bit of digging and a friendly tug from another vehicle was all it took to get me right out, and, so as to not make my truck look like a sissy, there were two other vehicles that we had to also assist in getting un-bogged. Coming from east Texas I am much more used to mud than sand, so it was an interesting experience just driving through the stuff let alone getting stuck. The second time the truck got stuck was the worst. As it tried to plow its way out of a deep patch of sandy road, I could feel it digging itself in deeper until the chassis bottomed out on the sand and the wheels just spun freely without touching the ground enough to pull it forward any further.

Sometimes I think we feel that way in our lives. Our wheels are spinning and spinning as we get up early every morning, work hard all day long, and go to bed exhausted at night just to repeat the cycle again the following day. We feel stuck in one place. What progress do we have to show for our hard work? We feel as if we aren't going anywhere. What is the point of working and working all the time anyway? 

It is easy to get stuck in a rut and lose sight of why we have even been traveling the road we are on in the first place. In college when a certain test or project was weighing me down and clouding my mind with doubts as to whether or not all of the effort was even worth it, I would look back in time to the way God had led me to that place and that remembrance would strengthen my resolve to press forward. I may not be in college anymore, but real life is much the same way. When the alarm clock goes off before the crack of dawn and another long, hot day of flying people from one place to another stares me in the unshaven face I wonder, "what in the world am I doing in Africa? I could fly much faster and cooler airplanes in America and be closer to family and friends that way. Why am I here? This routine is going to get old." And then I look backwards at my tracks through the sand and remember that I am here for more than just the completion of a daily routine. 

Don't get so focused on the road that you miss the beauty of the passing landscape. The purpose of my truck's spinning wheels was to carry us through the amazing countryside and allow us a glimpse of God's incredible handiwork and creativity. Our daily routines of work, eat, and sleep are for the purpose of propelling us through life where we can look around us and reach out with a helping hand or kind word to others traveling this road of life. 

I think of Peter walking on the water and how he was doing just fine until He looked away from the face of Jesus and down at the waves swelling up on every side. Don't let the sand or the waves pull you down. Those wheels have to keep spinning. Those feet have to keep walking.