When I was a little kid, probably around 5 or 6, I wanted to drive the car. My mom would let me sit on her lap and steer while she was driving up the driveway to our house. However, when it came time for me to actually drive and get out on the road, at around 16 years old, I was terrified. I did NOT want to learn to drive nor get out on the road where all the crazies were. People who drove over 45. People who didn’t keep both hands on the wheel. And I definitely didn’t want to drive on the Interstate with people zipping in and out of each other going so fast!
Fast forward about 15 years and once again I found myself learning to drive. This time I’m in a little blue car with a thing called a clutch that only a six foot tall man would have invented. It seems like you have to push it in all the way to the front bumper. And considering I have tripped over my own feet, I had no confidence that I could push in the clutch, push the gas, steer, and move the stick thing. I mean really… and Ryan even chews gum while doing this!
Back in the spring I’d had a couple of “lessons” and they did not usually end with me having any more confidence than what I started out with. However, when we were off from work two weeks ago I did amazingly well. I even, twice, went out on the main road. Yesterday… was a different story. We decided to go to the Augusta Springs Wetlands which is a nice easy walk. I came out to the garage and Ryan was sitting in the passenger seat of… you guessed it… the blue car. I was not prepared. I reluctantly got into the driver’s seat. I did manage to back out of the garage without damaging anything, although he had to tell me to turn off the emergency brake! The next challenge was getting out of our driveway which is on a hill and you have to stop at the top to see if anything is coming. This probably took 5 minutes… boom, stall out…. Try again… boom, stall out. And so on. Finally I get on the road and come to a stop sign. Boom, stall out… 3 times and then a big jacked up truck came up behind us. We did the only sensible thing and switched places and soon we were on the move barreling down the road. I had done fairly well two weeks ago! What happened?
“Peter said to Him, ‘Lord, why can I not follow You now? I will lay down my life for Your sake’”(John 13:37). “Then Simon Peter, having a sword, drew it and struck the high priest’s servant, and cut off his right ear. The servant’s name was Malchus” (John 18:10). “Then the servant girl who kept the door said to Peter, ‘You are not also one of this Man’s disciples, are you?’ He said, ‘I am not’” (John 18:17).
What happened? Peter had done so “well” just hours before. He was ok when he thought he knew how to react but after Jesus restored Malchus’s ear, Peter was at a loss. He wasn’t sure what was going on or what would happen if fighting wasn’t the answer. Peter was not mentally prepared for the challenge. He was then blind-sided by a servant girl asking him a question that had a very simple, straight forward answer. When I practiced driving the manual car 2 week ago I was determined to learn to drive it so that when Ryan was using the automatic I could still function and get where I needed to go. I saw a benefit to me; I had a plan; and I acted on it. Yesterday I was planning to go on a nice relaxing Sabbath walk and Ryan blindsided me with a pop quiz. I wasn’t mentally prepared. Knowing the new neighbors were outside listening to my audible failures made it even worse.
Whether driving a car or standing up for the Lord, mental preparedness makes a huge difference. In the garden of Gethsemane, if Peter had stayed awake to watch and pray with and for his Lord, he would, through his relationship with God, have overcome the temptation to deny Jesus (Desire of Ages page 713-14). Remember that you have full access to the throne of God and without Him, we can do nothing (John 15:5). We must not let the cares of this world overcome us so that we neglect our relationship with our heavenly Father for in so doing we will not be mentally prepared for the challenges that come our way each week, each day, each hour, even down to the very minutes of life. All of heaven is for us, if we will but grasp the Divine aid that is so freely available to us. Pop quizzes are going to come up and through vigilant study, persistent prayer, and a conscious of the spiritual war we are in, Jesus will help us gain the victory. Then at the end, with Paul we will be able to say ,“I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith” (2 Timothy 4:7).