Tuesday, June 5th, 2018
I visited the Wright County Jail last Sunday with my partner, Jim. There were nine inmates attending our Gideon Bible study.
About half-way through the presentation, I asked how they planned to stay out of jail when they are released because so many of them get out of jail only to return within a couple of years or months or weeks.
Matt was the first one to answer the question. “I plan on strapping myself into the passenger seat and let Jesus steer the car of my life.” What a wonderful metaphor for all of us. Even committed Christians sometimes put themselves in the driver’s seat now and again and let Jesus sit on the passenger side, asking Him to help them here and there as they steer the car wherever they will.
The message I give to inmates is that if they are believers they need to let Jesus lead and they follow. If they try to lead and have Jesus follow, they are in grave danger of ending up in jail once again. And if we try to lead and ask Jesus to follow, we are open to missing the mark (the definition of sin). You see, Jesus is the mark that we are to focus on. He leads; we follow. That’s as simple as it gets.