Pastoral Ponderings- Blowout
Have you ever noticed that flat tire always seems to happen at terribly inconvenient times? I just recently had one—actually a major blowout—not much left of the tire, so my quickie can to fix flats was useless. And as it happened, it was on one of those rare occasions when I had taken my good jack out of the car for a project in the barn, and it happened on the way to a medical appointment—or what SHOULD have been an appointment, had I not missed it…
I’ve mentioned before the wonderful connection between the air/pneuma in our tires and the Holy Spirit/pneuma that vitalizes our spiritual lives—same word! Makes for a great illustration—until you get a blow-out! A shredded tire obviously means no more pneuma—so we were literally stuck, unable to go anywhere. Which, I suppose, is the point of the lesson—without the pneuma, you can do nothing.
While Jesus doesn’t mention a tire or blowout, He does say pretty much the same thing when He describes Himself as the vine, and us as the branches—“I am the vine; you are the branches. Those who abide in me and I in them bear much fruit, because apart from me you can do nothing.” And of course, in our understanding of the Trinity, just as Jesus plainly states, “I and the Father are One,” Jesus also identifies Himself and the Holy Spirit as being one—so just like the tire, apart from the Holy Spirit/Jesus, “you can do nothing”!
Now a regular flat can be patched—but not a blowout. And it’s not uncommon for us to find ourselves in places where we can describe our situation as having a spiritual flat tire—we’ve lost touch with the Holy Spirit for a time. I wish I would have taken a picture of how hopelessly shredded it was! The GOOD NEWS is, that while a blowout on our car can remind us of our dependence on Jesus and His Holy Spirit, UNLIKE a blowout that can never be fixed, there’s NOTHING we can do that can make us beyond repair!
We can have a “spiritual flat” and lose the pneuma from our lives for a bit (or get to the point of FEELING like we’ve lost the Spirit), but we can never have an irreparable spiritual blowout! God loves us too much to allow for us to be so broken that we are beyond God’s grace—at least a part of why God’s grace is so amazing! Jesus gives us a lifetime subscription to God’s spiritual roadside assistance—just a prayer away! (and no obnoxious recording to be all that answers the call!)
So how’s the pneuma in your (spiritual) tires? No matter what, you’re just a prayer away from the assistance you need to get your flat fixed! Never stuck too long—Pastor Jim