Slow Motion Train Wreck

 Toni M. Babcock

“Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me.” (Psalm 51:10 KJV)

 
Have you ever watched the slow motion train wreck of a life gone wrong? 

It’s especially painful when the smoking wreckage happens to be ours. 

Who put the obstacle on the track? 

Can the blame be pinned on somebody else?

 
You have to admit, we can become notorious blame shifters when failing to take an honest look in the mirror. 

We might even end up shaking a fist at God. 

But what if instead of projecting bitter blame we adopted a better approach?

 
The fact is, owning the truth about ourselves and our responsibility toward God doesn’t end the day we come to Jesus, it’s the warp and weave of a life lived well. 

Still, we’re human. 

We’re still prone to self-deception, self- aggrandizement, rash decisions, and poor choices under the right circumstances. 

When we don’t garner the wisdom to see how things might go terribly wrong when Christ is not in control, then it is only a matter of time when our house of cards begins to collapse around us. 

The result being, if we are not honest with God about our part in any self-made misery, nothing will change. 

We’ll only become bitter toward others; more resentful, more despairing, and more desperate. 

We need Jesus!

Thankfully, God can fix our problems by opening our eyes to see our true need for His intervention. 

It involves casting our souls on Christ entirely; not despairing of ourselves in a self-destructive way, but surrendering any attempt to fix our problems using the same old failed tactics from the past, be it various addictions, bad advice, or plain old stubborn pride.

 
Such repentance is a gift we can’t conjure up on our own, but when we see who we are, and then see Jesus for who he really is – our gracious Lord and Savior – He can work it in and through us as we call on Him.

 
Toni is author of Reflections from the Heart in Light of the Gospel of Jesus and The Stone Writer. Contact