P.O. Box 53055    
Los Angeles, CA 90053   

IN THE CADDY WITH DADDY

“Let God take the wheel,” says the bumper sticker. But when you have to pay your taxes, or help your kid pick a college, or say yes or no to a temptation, it sure feels like YOU’RE the one steering the car and hitting the orange cones. How effective is this metaphor of God doing the driving?

It doesn’t happen very often — in fact, a pop song way back when suggested that it NEVER rains in Southern California — but on occasion it comes down with real vigor, something the homeowners out in Malibu can attest to. And on a rainy Saturday night back in early February a few years ago, one of our staff members got the unlucky assignment of driving from our Adventist Media Center here in Simi Valley down the Golden State Freeway to where the yearly gathering of the National Religious Broadcasters was going to be sharing the city of Anaheim with Mickey and Goofy and Snow White. It was a dark and stormy night, and the freeways were slick and wet. He was in a pickup truck with all of our Voice of Prophecy booth materials covered over with a plastic tarp, and just not having a good time at all. You simply couldn’t relax with the windshield wipers flapping away, the glare of oncoming headlights and red taillights spraying the wet roads with a blur of reflections. Drivers had to keep their guard up all the time, even creeping along at 15 miles an hour. It was exhausting.

And just then David looked ahead and saw something kind of sweet. Ahead of the pickup, one lane over, was a long, shiny Cadillac. One of the big ones: plush seats, passenger dome lights. You couldn’t hear from the next car over, but no doubt there was quiet classical music coming out of the car’s ten embedded speakers. Dolby digital stereo all the way, of course.

And in the front seat, Daddy was wrestling with the wind and the rain, just like all the other weekend warriors. But in the back seat, securely buckled in place, comfortably resting in that expensive leather . . . was a little boy. He was maybe six, and David caught just a glimpse. But as Dad was navigating the mean streets and making his way through the merging confusion where the 5 and the 110 Interstates meet, that little kid simply sat in the back seat in perfect peace. Daddy was driving. The rain was Daddy’s problem. The wet roads were his father’s concern, not his. All he had to do was sit there and enjoy being his daddy’s son.

David tells me that he saw that scene for maybe four seconds, and it’s never left him. What a perfect picture of what it means to be adopted by God, to be His child.

I hope you have been appreciating, as we certainly have, the insights we’ve gratefully been borrowing in this series from the classic Christian bestseller, Knowing God, by Dr. J. I. Packer. This one chapter of his, “Sons of God,” is all about the concept of adoption, and he comes now to a subsection entitled “The Life of Faith.” Right away, of course, we see in our minds that little boy in the back seat of the Caddy, allowing Dad to carry the burden of driving and facing the bumps and wet spots in the road. And Dr. Packer reminds us of the great Bible promises about Dad to be found in Matthew 6.

“‘Do not worry about your life,’ says the Lord,” Packer writes, “‘what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear.’” That’s from verse 25. He continues: “But, says someone, this is not realistic; how can I help worrying, when I face this, and this, and this? To which Jesus’ reply is: Your faith is too small. Have you forgotten that God is your Father?”

You know, friend, that’s exactly what we do forget. Our biggest problem in the Christian life is that we forget that we have a Dad, a loving, capable, excellent-driving Father who lives up in heaven but who is at all times watching over us. We just forget; that’s all. And Packer concludes the thought by quoting verse 26:

“‘Look at the birds of the air; . . . your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they?’” If God cares for the birds, whose Father He is not, is it not plain that He will certainly care for you, whose Father He is?”

It’s always fun to hike across the street and see how Dr. Eugene Peterson renders these passages in his paraphrase, The Message. Notice:

“Look at the birds, free and unfettered, not tied down to a job description, CARELESS IN THE CARE OF THE LORD.” Isn’t that good? Then the conclusion: “And you count far more to Him than birds.”

The rub is this. And you know, I’ve heard these “driving in a car, let God have the wheel” illustrations used by Christians many times, but the bottom line comes right here. You and I still have to get out of bed in the morning. If I’m going to get in my car and get to the office and be a principled, humble Christian leader from 8-6, God doesn’t seem to drive me from Moorpark to Simi Valley. I’ve got to turn the key and step on the gas and steer the car and then try to live an obedient, Christ-centered life while I’m at work. When I travel for the Voice of Prophecy, there are decisions and choices and moral weighings to be done, and it just isn’t possible to feel like I’m ensconced in the back seat of heaven’s limo service letting God do it all.

Maybe your kid has to pick a college. Wouldn’t it be great if the Bible said, “Go to UCLA, or to Azusa Pacific University” — a great Christian college just down the freeway. Or La Sierra University, one of the excellent Christian schools in our Adventist network of colleges. But the Bible is silent when it comes to picking a college; God doesn’t e-mail you with His selection. And when you have to make the choice yourself, it sure feels like you’re clutching the steering wheel in the rain.

Even the birds of the air, who are cared for by the Father, do have to flap their wings and build nests and feed their young and watch out for predators. So how helpful is this metaphor?

First of all, are we thankful that the life of faith is not like a Disneyland adventure where the car just bumps along the track, going left, then going right through Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride no matter how much the child spins the fake steering wheel? The Christian life is not one of robotics, of mindless pre-programmed traveling down heaven’s pre-ordained rail of obedience. God expects us to pick colleges and choose a spouse, to select a church and go there, to seek out a neighbor and love them, to hit the gas pedal ourselves and zoom away from Satan’s temptations.

No, friend, it’s in the sense of ultimate destiny that we can be thankful for God in the driver’s seat. We may hit puddles and nick fenders as we journey through life, and yet the Lord promises that His adopted sons and daughters will make it home for Christmas.

And yes, we do also have our Father’s loving directions and presence with us even on that day-to-day basis. No, God doesn’t drive me to the office each morning, but He is with me through the words of Scripture I read before I go there; He advises me through the influence of the Spirit as I make choices or face temptation. Loving friends who are also walking with God give me counsel, and I consider those words to be from heaven itself.

The very day David was piecing this message together for us, Jan Judd, who works at our Discover Bible School, quietly went around from desk to desk putting a message of faith there. And it gave us all spiritual goosebumps to see how God puts good ideas together at the perfect moment. Because here’s word-for-word what Jan had written:

“Faith is simply resting in Jesus. It is realizing that we cannot control our circumstances, but Someone far bigger and greater than us — our Creator, can! It is resting in the fact that the God who made us and loved us enough to send Jesus to this earth to die for us, has a plan for our lives, and whatever the outcome, it will be for the best. It’s only when we come to the place where we can truly leave the outcome of our lives in His hands that we can have total peace.” Then she goes to the freeway motif herself: “Right now, some of us are on a long journey, and we are tired. We are asking God, ‘When will this long trip end? I don’t know where I’m going and I can’t see the way — it’s so dark!’ He says to each one of us, personally, ‘I am your Father and you can trust Me. Because you are My child, I love you and want only the best for you. I’ve traveled this road before you and I know all the dangers, but best of all, I know exactly where we are going. I will get you there if you will just relax and trust Me. Let me do the driving, and when we get there, it will be worth the trip!’”

Isn’t that beautiful? Let’s close with Dr. Packer’s celebrating of that same imagery:

“‘We might have a crash,’ said the small girl anxiously, as the family car threaded its way through traffic. ‘Trust Daddy; he’s a good driver,’ said Mommy. The young lady was reassured, and she relaxed at once. Do you trust your heavenly Father like that? If not, why not? Such trust is vital; it is in truth the mainspring of the life of faith.”