Although it’s been several years ago, I can remember it well. It was again becoming springtime in the castle valley, and I was turning the ripe old age of 16! I noticed that along with a driver’s license, something else happens when turning sixteen. All of the sudden you wake up one morning & realize “I’ve got it, I mean I’ve really got it,” and that’s when it hits you. ”I know everything!” All of the years of counsel from church and school, and the endless advice of your parents, suddenly becomes useless information for a person who truly believes he knows it all!
As I was turning sixteen years old, my dad had an old blue Ford that he said I could drive during the week if I’d help him to get it fixed up and running, and he’d use it for a work truck on the weekends. Boy, what a deal! So, for the next month or so, we spent a lot of time together in the garage. Eventually, with what I’m sure was little or no real help from me, dad got old blue running strong again, sorry and thanks Dad!
I got my license and had been getting along pretty well with the old blue Ford for a few months, when one day, one of the little warning lights flickered on momentarily and then went off again. Over the course of the following weeks it began to happen more and more, and eventually it just stayed on! I wasn’t about to tell Dad, he’d make me pull it back into the garage and we’d be working on it again. So, in my new teen-age wisdom, I simply covered it up with a sticker, or a baseball card or something, and it worked great! The truck still seemed to run just fine, and now there were no annoying warning lights!
Then, one day during a serious rainstorm, it happened! The old Ford just shut down on me. And for the next 2 hours, I tramped through the rain, the cold and the mud in search for help. Being soaking wet and cold as you walk towards home for help, can really get you to questioning whether you really know all that much about anything!
I tell you that story to ask you this question. How many times have we been driving down the road of life; had a warning light come on and just ignored it? Though we all drive various roads in this life, I believe that each of us receives our own warning lights to help protect and alert us of potential problems along the way. But, just like the little light in that old blue pickup, if we cover them up with worldly things or think that we already “know it all,” then the warnings and instruction will not shine through! And we may find ourselves walking around aimlessly through the storm, left to ourselves in search of needed help. Life is good, and it’s even better when you’re driving your vehicle not pushing it.