Getting Hitched

T

he coffee table, the end tables, lamps, a sofa, bedroom furniture, kitchen utensils, pictures, books, books, and more books, when would it ever end?  Every time I turned around, my dad had placed something else outside the trailer which carried my things from North Carolina to Texas.  He and my brother had packed all of my things into a sixteen-foot trailer and my parents had moved the entire lot halfway across the country.  I was amazed at how much that trailer held and just when it seemed there could be nothing else to move, out came something else that needed to go into the apartment.

One week later, my dad connected that empty trailer to his truck, and he, along with my mom and sister, pulled away from the curb and started the long journey home.  I watched them as they gingerly guided that trailer over the speed bumps used to keep people from driving excessively fast in our parking area.  The trailer mirrored every move the truck made.  When the truck turned left, so did the trailer, when the truck sped up, the trailer followed suit, and when dad came to a halt, the trailer came to rest as well.

As I stood there, watching them leave, God impressed upon me a great truth about following him.  As Christians we all know the importance of following God and obeying his commandments.  But as I watched that trailer, I began to understand that the manner in which we follow God makes all the difference in the world.  Following God means this:  we go where he goes, when he goes, without asking why, without resisting his direction.  When he stops, we stop, when he turns, we turn, and when he slows down, we had best follow suit.

In Deuteronomy 13:4, Moses records these words, “You shall follow the LORD your God and fear Him; and you shall keep His commandments, listen to His voice, serve Him, and cling to Him.”  A careful reading of this verse reveals the actions the Israelites were to perform in order to follow the Lord. They were to follow, to fear, to keep his commandments, to listen, to serve, and to cling.  These words are still used today by professing Christians.  We use the words follow, serve, listen, and keep when we speak about our walk with the Lord.  But there is one word that doesn’t enter into our vocabulary very often, if it enters at all.

The last action in this series tells us that we are to cling to God.  What, exactly, does that mean?  Simply this, we are to be so close to our God that whenever he makes a move, we move with him immediately.  Our relationship to God must be such that we trust him completely; hitching ourselves to him, allowing him to lead us and pull us wherever he wills, and we must have no will except his.  This is what it means to cling.  We become totally dependent on God and trust him completely without worry, fear, or question.

The picture of my dad’s trailer is right on target.  Although it was loaded with wonderful things and although my parents had good intentions of bringing my things to me and helping me set up my apartment, unless my dad hitched the trailer to the truck, none of those intentions or the work they had done would have done any good.  The trailer, although filled with wonderful things was useless without the truck.  It is the same with us.  Our actions, our good intentions, our motives, our work, our willingness, while good, are worthless unless we follow God and hitch ourselves to him.  We can do nothing without him because he is the only one who knows where we are going and he is the only one who can get us there.

Today, are you hitched to God?  Are you following him without reserve?  Do you trust him completely to provide all your needs and to get you to the place to which he has called you?  The next time you see a trailer on the road, remember that God wants us not only to follow him, he wants us to cling to him as well.  Are you hitched today?