As I’m standing here following this semi, trying to trust Him because I can’t see, I think and I wonder, Why is He going so slow?  I sit and I think and I remember. He’s hauling cargo.

 

A semi-truck has cargo. It has a trailer and some have three. I start to wonder about what’s in the trailer. Then I realize what’s in the trailer is my sin. Jesus is carrying my load for me. Every sin I’ve ever committed or will commit is in the trailer. That’s probably why He can’t go very fast because the lighter the load the faster you could go. And so I wonder, what does sin look like? Is it a box? Is it a big anvil? Is it something that has immeasurable weight to it that would cause this semi to slow down?

 

I look to the Bible and I find that for me, right now, my sin might not harm me or look like something that I can see. However, when God looks at us and He sees our soul with decay, bruising, and the cuts that we self-inflict, it must look atrocious to someone who is pure love. The wounds that we put on our soul by lying, rebelling, anger, hatred, by our immorality, by our thoughts, must really damage what our souls started out to be compared to as it is. I think that as a comparison to what damage we have done to our soul we only have to look at Jesus and see the kind of damage that was done to Him during the passion where He was beaten, whipped, scarred, spit on, and basically made to look unrecognizable from what He had been just a day before.

 

As I think of the load that I have put on my Savior I wonder how I could even walk carrying a load of sin that is leading me to a fire of unquenchable thirst. I think of a scene that we see in the Bible of the passion of Christ where Jesus is weighted down, beaten, weak, struggling and having to carry this cross. The Romans grab somebody from the crowd and make him carry the cross just so Jesus can walk up the hill to Golgotha where He is crucified.

 

What I see in my mind is myself under that cross. I’ve done this to myself by my sin. Jesus comes out of the crowd on His own, without being forced to, and He reaches down, picks up that heavy cross, and He carries it for me.

 

That’s why He’s going slow. He’s carrying the weight of my sin on His shoulders as we walk the road of God together. He’s in front of me carrying this huge thing that I did to myself and keep doing to myself. That’s why when I came onto this road there was just one trailer and now there are three.

                                                                       

DESTINATION

 

But God has a place for what’s in that trailer.

 

In Micah 7:18-19 it says: “Who is a God like you? Pardoning inequity and passing over transgression for the remnant of His inheritance. He does not retain his anger forever because he delights in steadfast love. He will again have compassion on us. He will tread our inequities underfoot. You will cast all our sins into the depth of the sea.”

 

In Jeremiah 31:33-34 it says: “This is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after that time declares the Lord. I will put my law in their minds and write it in their hearts. I will be their God and they will be my people. For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more.”

 

God has a destination in mind for our sins. If we come to Christ, accept Him, submit to Him, and follow Him then our sins will go to a place where they are never remembered by God again. He throws them into the depths of the sea. He remembers them no more. Jesus said: “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” (John 14:6)

 

 If we don’t accept Christ and submit to Him, we follow the load that Jesus carried for us because He carries it for us whether we accept Him or not. Jesus carries all the sins of everyone and paid the price once and for all on the cross. When we acknowledge Jesus, He takes that load off of us. Then He carries it and dumps it where God won’t remember it. If we turn away from Christ, without acknowledging the gospel, then we face the consequences for our own actions and our own sins even though Jesus has paid the price and carried the load.

 

Our own destination, when we accept Jesus Christ as our Savior, is a wonderful place. In John 14:2-4, Jesus says this: “ My Father’s house has many rooms; if that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am. You know the way to the place where I am going.”

 

 

Jesus has told us He is building something for us. I think it is going to be amazing; the kind of house or room that we get in God’s hotel. Or I should say God’s heavenly resort. So I think of my destination with hope and with a little bit of fear. Because in order to get there, I have to leave here. This is just a place where God molds us and shapes us for the future he has in store for us. We all have to leave here. Even Jesus died. But Jesus showed us that there is more life ahead of us than we can think there is right now. As we continue to fix our eyes on Jesus, we should understand that fact. There is more in store for us than we could ever think or imagine.

 

 

As I close this little story, I want to review a little bit of what we’ve learned. I think if we learn to submit to God wholeheartedly, be at peace with Him contentedly, follow Him closely, trust in Him absolutely, and are patient with Him, then we will go to a place where we are just going to have lots of fun. It will be a place where we are going to be partying down with angels. Where we can see the face of God and not be turned to ash. Where we will be able to dance and party with Jesus like at the wedding feast where His first miracle was performed.

 

 

Thank you to Sara who typed this up and thank you to whoever reads this.

 

 

“The Lord bless you and keep you; The Lord make his face to shine upon on you and be gracious to you; The Lord turn his face toward you and give you peace.” (Numbers 6:24-26)