Cornering in Christ—Traversing the Twists & Turns

Riding a motorcycle you are taught to keep your eyes up on the road ahead, not directly in front at your wheel. You play a long game, not a short one. Approaching a corner you look through it to the straight road on the other side. If you try and navigate the turn inch by inch you over-compensate and wobble and falter. 

When Peter stepped out of the boat onto the water to follow Jesus, he started with a miracle and then began to sink. Why? Because he took his eyes of Jesus. He took his eyes off the where and began to overanalyse the how. Jesus rebuked him for having little faith, for not trusting enough. Once you trust Him with the first step, you've gotta trust Him even more with the next.

There's a whole other level of trust with cornering besides taking your eyes off the road at your wheel—you have to lean into it. The sharper the corner, the sharper the lean. It feels counter-intuitive at first, but the more you do it the more natural it feels. Jesus says to lean on Him, even when it doesn't make sense. You can tell those who corner well in their lives, they lean right into Jesus and keep their eyes on the road ahead. When we lean on Jesus, He guides the ride. 

Still, things are bound to not always go the way you want. Riding through darkness can't be avoided. So what do you keep your eyes on then? Don't worry, He's still got you. When you ride at night, you deflect your eyes from oncoming traffic and focus solely on the unbroken white line at the edge of the road. It doesn't matter how dark the night is, or how bright the lights of oncoming traffic are, if you watch that line, it will guide you. In fact the darker the night, and the brighter the lights, the more that line will shine. Like Jesus, it remains steadfast: unbroken, straight and true. If you take your eyes off it for a second, if you look at the broken line in the middle of the road, or into the glaring eyes of the oncoming beast, you're headed for destruction. So it is with Jesus. When all is dark, He remains bright. The blacker the night, the brighter His light; and his light doesn't blind you, it binds you. 

If you get an eye-full of Jesus' light, it floods your whole body. It seeps into your cracks and broken places and binds them up. It searches out the dark places and floods them out too. It changes you. You can tell when people are flooded because it flows out their mouth. They can’t help but speak of His goodness and His grace and His love. They have a joy that can't be shaken. On the road they could be struck by a sudden squall, plunged into palpable darkness, smashed with stones from a passing freighter, pounded with potholes as big as pandas, but they just keep on cruising. 

But hey, let's be real. There's still gonna be potholes on the road. You’re on the same road as everyone else, but you've got something they don't: supernatural tyres that metamorphose to adapt to road conditions. Yep, really. Very truly I say to you. Big pothole coming up? No problem, Jesus will replace your 90/90 for a nice fat 150/80. Tar snakes glistening in the rain slippery as a politician's smile? Jesus will change your slicks for some chunky treads. He knows every inch of the road ahead, and will equip you with what you need when you need it, so that you can live the life He created you for. You just need to trust that He knows what's coming up and how to get you through it.

So, whatever is looming ahead, however dark the clouds are roiling on the horizon, however blinding the lights of oncoming traffic, keep your eyes firmly fixed, lean into Christ, and He will pull you through the corner, guide you through the darkness, and keep you safely on the road, rubber side down.

Matthew 6:22; 11:28-30; Psalm 18:32 Proverbs 3:5; Ephesians 2:10;