Gone Flat?

Several weeks ago, I woke up on a Monday morning to discover my front, driver side tire was flat. Never a great way to start a new week. Especially when I had to get to the airport as quickly as possible. Apparently, I had driven somewhere the day before and went over three little nails. After throwing $30 away on an ill-fated attempt to patch the holes, it became clear that I needed a new tire. No big deal. Easy enough to fix. It’s only one tire. Except that, according to the local tire dealer, the tires I had were discontinued and hard to find.  There were only a few of them left in the entire state of New Jersey, so it would be about a week before I could get it fixed. In the meantime, since it was a slow leak, they told me to just keep airing up my tires each morning.  Not ideal or something I wanted to do, but only a minor inconvenience. I did that for about a week and a half.  Each morning, before driving off to work, I would fill up my own tire with air.  Then, at some point in the afternoon, the indicator light would come on again reminding me of the waning tire pressure issue that wouldn’t go away.  I would then have a decision to make—either take my chances on making it home with a deflating tire or pull out the air compressor that was now a regular passenger in my backseat.  After about 9 days of waiting for the tire people to call me back (which to this day, I still haven’t heard from them), I took my car back to the original dealership where they replaced my tire within a couple of hours and at a cheaper rate.  So why am I sharing this with you? Remember, God provides teachable moments all the time and in all things!
 
Advent is a season of preparation and waiting. It is a season in the church year designed to fix our eyes on the coming of the Lord, the return of our Savior Jesus. Why?  Because life is hard.  Trying to meander through this broken creation alone, is like driving around with a tire you keep filling up yourself. It is not sustainable. It doesn’t solve the problem; it just prolongs it.  No matter what self-help methods we use, our proverbial tires will still lose air. We will still go flat.  At some point, the leaks will get larger, or the tire will burst.  We will burst. With all the hustle and bustle of the pending month of December, it is important to safeguard our hearts and lives to prevent moments and feelings of deflation. Advent reminds us that the Savior who came before, will come again.  The only way to find peace and hope, while we wait in a world of sin and evil, is to gaze upon Jesus, to peer into the abundance of mangers we find this time of the year and to confidently declare that He is coming again. We need to resist the temptations of trying to do things on our own, and simply rest in the arms of Jesus. Allow Him be the one to put air back in your tire.  Spending time in prayer and devotion, grounds us in a right perspective to engage and endure a sinful world.  Jesus promises to make all things new. He promises to replace all the parts of our lives that have gone flat and long stopped working. We know this will happen when He comes back, therefore we wait with eager hope for His return. In the meantime He promises to be present with us—refilling the leaking tires of our lives, to breathe life and strength back into where it is lacking. Whatever the flat tire is that you face today, stand strong in faith knowing it cannot separate you from the love and providence of our God. He is with you today. Now. And you don't even have to wait 9 days for a call back!
 
“The Spirit of God has made me, and the breath of the Almighty gives me life.” (Job 33:4)