CROSSTRAX!
One man’s view about the
things that really matter….

If last month we thought about “Knowing where you are going”, then…

This month….

Let’s think about “admitting it when you are lost or stranded.”

I suppose that you’ve all seen the TV ad where a man has bogged his ute and another fellow comes along in his  new VW Amarok Canyon and offers to give him a tow or a snatch. The first man (highly indignant) claims that he is only ‘parked’ with the inference to the ‘good Samaritan’ to ‘clear out’.

Stuck, unable to move and won’t admit it. Not a good attitude to have if

i) you’re in a river bed or

ii) on a beach below the high water mark and the tide is coming in, or

iii)  most of all when you really are on a very back track and you are scores of kms from anything civilised  at all. (Except for camels or dingoes and the odd (aren’t they all?), galah.

Better to swallow your pride (I hear you say) and let the one who has offered to help give you a hand. Yup! Good advice. But like the fellow with the bogged ute who refused help even when the consequences might have been disastrous, there are so many like that in our world today.

So many who know that there are problems in their lives, marriages or families that they know that they really can’t solve, let alone cope with – yet when given an opportunity to help solve the problem will shrink back from talking or even finding out whether or not the problem can be solved for fear that it might be taken as a sign of weakness.

But even worse than that is the situation when a person knows that his relationship with God is either faulty or non-existent. They might know this but because of guilt or fear or just plain stubbornness, try to pretend that “she’ll be right mate” (the great Australian excuse for just about everything) and then do nothing.

The problem is that a person can’t go on doing (or saying) this forever. Sooner or later the time will come when we will be forced to answer the ‘Greatest Question Ever Asked’ and at that moment it will be too late.

There is a great couple of verses in the New Testament which puts this so clearly…..

For we will all stand before God’s judgment seat. ¹¹ It is written:

“‘As surely as I live,’ says the Lord,
‘every knee will bow before me;
every tongue will acknowledge God.’”

¹² So then, each of us will give an account of ourselves to God.”  Romans 14:10 – 12.

Too late to get ready then. Better to know that you have the question’s answer now. You know my contact details and that I am always ready to talk (in total confidence) with anyone who has a question.

“Bogged?” says the Amarok driver “Yes I am, could you please give me some help” Sensible answer.

“Got an unanswered question about your relationship to God?” What’s your answer to that?

• Neil flower, TRAX Chaplain (0408 216 401 or neilflower@bigpond.com)