Lent 2023 day 21

 Deliver us.

Last Thursday night it snowed here.  It snowed hard and fast all night.  Ben and Sam had decided to go to Edinburgh to visit Josh and were supposed to be at the airport to fly at 7.30pm.   By 6pm the roads were white over and things were looking dodgy.  They left for the airport taking a long way round to stay on main roads.  Got there OK.  Flight delayed by hours and hours.  Keith had to make his way home and I phoned him to tell him that the roads were not visible and he shouldn't even try to make it up and down the perilous hills that surround our village.  I thought he might manage to make it to his mothers farm and suggested he camp out there for the night instead of trying to get home.   In actual fact he did make it home.  But 48 hours later when we eventually ventured out of the house again the roads were littered with cars which had come off the road and ended up in hedges and ditches and fields.

When your car ends up in a ditch there's not much you can do.  You need to be rescued.  Preferably by a man ( or woman) with a tow truck or a tractor or a winch.  Its a pain.  Even if your car is undamaged and perfectly driveable, if you can't get any purchase on the road or your back wheels are up in the air you are just going to have to wait for help to arrive.  Thankfully round our way there is usually a friendly farmer on hand with some sort of vehicle and a tow rope to help sort people out.

Deliverance, it seems to me, is a bit like that.  You go off the road for whatever reason.  And there really isnt much you can do to rescue yourself.  You need someone else's help.  So much of the Christian life is between us and God.  But there are times when we need the intervention of other people.  God has designed us so that we work best in community, in vulnerable and accountable relationships and in submission to authority.  If you are stuck in some area of your life and you have tried and failed to get yourself unstuck, maybe its time to ask for assistance. 

Unfortunately for us, the things that get us stuck in the first place are most often the embarrassing, shameful, ugly, difficult things.  They are the very things we don't want to talk about to anyone else let alone admit we have failed in.   We dont want to tell about our parenting disasters, our financial mis-management, our marriage difficulties, our church fallouts, the falling into temptation, addictions ..... etc etc.  But these are the things which send us skidding off the road.   Ironically the thing which keeps us safe on the roads is salt.   And salt is what Jesus tells us we all are to each other and to the world.  

Salt is not just to give flavour to food  and to preserve it - its to melt the ice on the road to keep us on track.  If we lost our saltiness then those coming behind us are more likely to have accidents.  The saltier we are the better it is for everyone else who is travelling this road with us.  



And just for a smile - to lighten the mood - here is a list of some of the names of Scotland's road gritting lorries.

Scotland's Gritter names 2022/23

Gritallica

Ready, Spready Go!

Sled Zeppelin

Snowlar BEAR

Gangsta Granny Gritter

Frosty

Snow Angel

Veruca Salt

My Name is Doddie

Sprinkles

The Snow Buster

For Your Ice Only

The Snowclaimers

I Want to Break Freeze

Mega Melter

I’m shovelin’

Always Be Grit-full

Basil Salty

Polar Patroller

Snow Dozer

Licence to Chill

Sir Salter Scott

Snow Connery

Nitty Gritty

Grit-Tok

BFG – Big Friendly Gritter

BRINE FREEEEZE

Mrs McGritter


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