I’ve figured out why it’s so hard to sit in the passenger seat when my teenage daughter practices driving. I have no control, and that leaves me vulnerable. I can give her gentle suggestions, or I can grab the dashboard and gasp as if my life were in imminant danger (which was my mother’s personal favorite!), but I can’t control Maggie. Ultimately, I have to accept that she is doing the driving and I am not.
Brene’ Brown is all about being vulnerable, and her message is very liberating.
Which, I suppose, makes me pretty courageous!
Sometimes, vulnerability is the unavoidable spinning of your car on an icy road as you draw closer to another car. You have no control and you have no idea how things will end. Nothing you say or do will avoid the collision. Sometimes it’s just trusting someone, which allows you some amount of control as you determine how much you trust them and what you trust them with. It’s honestly hard for me to say which is more frightening.
When it comes to letting Maggie drive, I’ve narrowed everything down to one rule: Don’t freak out mom! Don’t follow so close, drive so fast or do anything to freak out mom. Essentially, that translates to “Give mom peace while you’re driving.”
It’s the same hope I have in God. It’s my prayer that God won’t do anything to scare me or make me insecure, but that he’ll lead me in peace. But that has a lot to do with me, though. I know that in Christ I have a Good Shepherd who loves me, in whom I can put my trust. He leads me beside the still waters to calm me. I know his voice, and I know that he will keep me safe from predators – whether they’re literal or figurative. But I have the responsibility to believe this truth. If I don’t trust in Him, it doesn’t matter how gentle He is with me if I’m going to freak out regardless of the situation. When I choose to worry, I lose confidence in Him.
I have to be confident in this: God has promised to take care of all things that concern me, and He does it because He loves me. I can trust Him to be in the driver’s seat – even if I get a little nervous sitting in the passenger seat.
He loves you, too! So much so that He’s invited us to cast all our cares and anxieties on Him because He cares for us (1 Peter 5:7). So go ahead and give it a shot! You might be surprised at what can happen if you’re willing to trust Christ in the driver’s seat.
I'M WITH HIM 