I went to FCA tonight (fellowship of christian athletes for those curious). There's a woman on campus this week hanging out kind of seeing what we do here at Methodist (exciting things of course). She plugged the camp where she works and had us play a game. I can be a bit skeptical when it comes to playing group games because I'm not always sure if adults understand their audience... or perhaps I can just be a bit of a stick in the mud but I was feeling open and optimistic tonight.
Everyone had to find a partner and face each other. One person was the car... which meant you had to close your eyes and keep your hands out in front of you like "bumpers." The other person was the driver... which meant you turned the car around to face the other direction and put your hands on their shoulders to drive. We got to meander around (no faster than 3 mph :) for a minute or two and then switched roles. I'm sure everyone felt a little silly at one point or another but tons of people made crashes inevitable and entertaining of course. Afterwards we found another duo and teamed up to rehash the game. Our leader asked us to talk about what we liked and didn't like about being the car and the driver. I found solace in one of my group members who was as much of a control freak as I was feeling it hard to trust the driver when we were the car. Then we were supposed to talk about a time in our life when maybe we felt like a car or a driver. Most people related their college search or a job search... wanting to be in control but losing a lot of it. Then she asked us to apply the car and driver to Christian relationship. The cynical side of me felt the question and answer session building up to this. I'm not a big fan of those sunday school type questions. The church girl in me wants to recite something about God being the driver and we have to let go and trust Him. Most people relate the analogy about jumping into the passenger seat.
Thankfully my group wasn't satisfied with the sunday school answer. We talked about the obvious... that in our relationship with God, He should be the driver and we need to trust Him... even when it seems crazy or we'd much rather be in control. But we also talked about sometimes as Christians in our relationships with others, we need to be drivers and help steer them towards our driver, God. We decided to use the example of a vehicle I have since learned can be referred to as a tractor trailer auto transporter for our analogy. God is driving the tractor trailer but we're driving all of these other cars onto the trailer to be steered in the right direction. It all reminds me of my former employer, Inter-Rail, Inc., which was their job to unload and load vehicles off of railcars to be shipped to or from dealerships. A little off-topic... but the point is I'm on taking a ride on the tractor trailer auto transporter... trying to find my way.
P.S. Last week in chapel, mike safley talked about loving without expectations. I pray every day I can love like that.
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