Over lukewarm cups of coffee, I listened as a friend dug into the depths of her soul and shared the tragic story that changed the path of her young life. At the ripe old age of twenty six, her fist husband was killed in a fluke accident as his car careened across a busy road slamming into another vehicle. The driver of the other car had a broken leg, her husband had nothing on him but a cut on his neck. A cut that somehow deep enough to sever something in his brain killing him instantly.

The grieving that ensued was overwhelming. She knew of God but had chosen to walk away from the relationship she had with him in a former life and begin a new starting point without Him. And that life was good. Really good. Until the tires of a car flew out of control causing chaos on a roadway.

And for her, that moment was where the rubber met the road and she had to make a choice. She could either be angry at God feeling punished and abandoned, or she could recognize that this was the moment when she needed to let God love her as she leaned upon Him in the midst of her pain. She chose the path less travelled and began a new starting point in discovering who Jesus truly was and what He meant to her for the previous life she was leading was a selfish one. She had been a slave to her own wants and desires leaving the hurt of her past in the dust.

Several years later she is still working through the anger that manifested itself in different areas of her life all while processing how fast her beautiful new story unfolded. But through it all, she can see the fingerprint of God upon all the good… and the not-so-good of her life.

Surely you know that when you give yourselves like slaves to obey someone, then you are really slaves of that person. The person you obey is your master. You can follow sin, which brings spiritual death, or you can obey God, which makes you right with him.
Romans 6:16

Not all of us go through a fleshed out life or death tragedy such as this one, but most of us go through a spiritual life or death tragedy where we must decide what path we will travel. For most of us, that is the moment where the rubber meets the road. When the sins of a broken and messed up world begin to overwhelm our soul, causing friction and dissatisfaction in what we thought was a really good life, we must make a choice in what we really believe.

Will we be slaves to our sin believing we’re being punished and abandoned by a wishy-washy god, or will we believe that He is a good, good Father who knows the end of the story?

Father, when the rubber meets the road, and I am forced to choose what I believe about you, overwhelm me with your grace and your mercy to see that when you are in the drivers seat, I’ve no fear of losing control. In Jesus name, amen.