Alien Drums

This morning while driving to work in the dark, I struck a large piece of tire rubber that obviously had been shed by an 18-wheeler. My tires went over part of it, and the road clutter slapped the side of my car as I cruised along at 69 miles per hour. Then I hit another, smaller piece.

My car seemed unaffected by the encounter, but then I began to smell burning rubber. That didn’t make sense. Still I didn’t feel any problem through my steering wheel.

Half a minute later I come up close behind an 18-wheeler and I see sparks coming from under the right rear trailer wheel. Suddenly it’s obvious to me. I smelled the burning rubber because this truck had just thrown the tire.

I changed lanes to my left, flashed my bright lights, then drove up beside the cab, turned on my dome light and pointed back to the rear of the trailer. I couldn’t see the driver because I was down low in my Camry, but I figured he could see my signal in the light. I pulled in front; and, sure enough, he was slowing down to find out what was wrong.

I thought about stopping to help, but I figured he was probably better at that sort of thing than me anyway. It did, however, feel good to be of a little help. I didn’t do much of anything, but maybe it helped save his rim.

So what’s the big deal? Here’s the thought: A lot of people, including me, throw a spiritual tire at times and don’t even realize it. They lose something they had, but they’re moving so fast with life that they don’t notice. If they, if we, keep going like that, things will do nothing but get worse. What we need is someone to come alongside, get our attention and help us see the problem so we can “pull over” and get the problem fixed.

Sometimes, of course, we don’t need to point out the problem; we just need to help. Just like driving a truck on 18 wheels is better than on 17, driving a life with a connection to God is better than doing without. Of course, we must be careful not to try to drive other lives ourselves, just help them know Who can.

I hope this day you have some time to “pull over” and check your spiritual tires. I plan to do that, because I feel a little flat.