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Key Bible Verse: If you try to keep your life for yourself, you will lose it (Mark 8:35). Bonus Reading:Mark 8:34-35

When our son Michael celebrated his fifteenth birthday, the state of Delaware considered him competent to practice driving. I approved of him getting a learner's permit and agreed to accompany him as he logged practice hours behind the wheel.

As we drove together, I felt reasonably comfortable giving him the wheel in areas I considered safe. I felt okay letting him tootle around the neighborhood on memorized routes to and from church, school, and the grocery store. But letting him take off to Wilmington on the freeway seemed nuts, in no way wise. I preferred to snatch the wheel and switch seats, thereby reestablishing the way we'd driven in the past as father and son, driver and passenger.

Many believers will buckle up and let God drive them to church and around their suburb. But boy, letting Him be in control out there in the real world—with its heavy traffic, high speeds, competition, mergers, and road rage—that's a whole different story. When the rubber hits the road, they grab the wheel, and Jesus is back to just being along for the ride. But without Him at the wheel, you'll sooner or later crash.

—Bob Jacks in Divine Appointments

My Response: An area in which I'm learning to not "grab back the wheel" is. …

Thought to Apply: God can make you anything you want to be, but you have to put everything in His hands.

—Mahalia Jackson (gospel singer, 20th century)

Adapted from Divine Appointments (NavPress, 2002) by permission.

Copyright © 2003 by the author or Christianity Today International/Men of Integrity magazine.
Click here for reprint information on Men of Integrity.

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Prayer for the Week

You abandoned heaven for me, O Christ; give me the resolve to pour out my life for You.

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