One of mine and Samuel’s favorite shows to watch together is Pixar’s “Tokyo Mater.” Samuel is my two year old grandson and we love “Mater’s Tall Tales.” My favorite part is when Mater loses control and starts to just slide as he hits a patch of oil. He proudly exclaims, “Look at me I’m drifting!” I think about that line of good ole Mater. Is it really good to drift? I looked it up. Drifting is a driving technique where a driver intentionally oversteers and causes their car to slide sideways while moving forward. There is usually smoke and it looks cool. It seems cool, but is it?
I applied this question to the sum total of my walk with the Lord. Looking back I have drifted quite often losing control and sliding sideways often ending up in the side ditch and off roading. Our walk with the Lord is meant to be forward progress not exploring side streets and taking the wide path. At times drifting seemed the cool thing to do for me also, but boy was I wrong.
At other times I look back and realize it was a slow roll, a slow fade drifting into the wrong lanes. I didn’t even realize what I was doing until it was too late. The Voice of the Lord became quiet in my head as I chose to oversteer my life. I couldn’t hear Him warn me, “Go right to go left.” (Another quote from a “Cars movie.) I slowly drifted away from my Firm Foundation.
We often say, “I drifted off to sleep.” We don’t really know when we fall asleep, but we all know when we wake up. If you are like me, looking at the clock is the first thing I do when I wake up, or I have the alarm set for a specific time. I don’t drift into a wakeful state of being. My eyes open in an instant.
I once read a story of a 23 year old woman Aicha who boarded a migrant boat with 58 others, sailing toward a new future. Somewhere along the way their direction was lost and the boat drifted. Their supplies ran out. The ocean claimed all lives but Aisha’s. Twenty-two days later rescuers found this lone survivor. It began as a journey of hope but it became a helpless drift. Her lostness wasn’t intentional but once you lose direction, drifting happens quietly.
That story has stayed with me and it has become especially poignant this month of Elul. Nobody plans to drift from God. Nobody intends to neglect this relationship with Him. Yet over time small compromises, neglected habits, and unchecked patterns slowly shift us away from God’s path. But God! God issues a command from His Throne Room, “Return.” It is a tradition during this time to blow a ram’s horn called a “shofar,” every morning during this month. It’s God’s wake up call, His alarm clock if you will. It is specifically a ram’s horn to remind us of the sacrificial substitute God sent Abraham as he was about to sacrifice Isaac. Just as he lifted the knife in obedience God provided a ram caught in the thicket by its horn. In Israel you can hear the shofar blown at the exact spot where Isaac the son was spared because another sacrifice was provided. It is the place where God the Father did sacrifice His only Son, and Jesus became our substitute. Jesus became our “instead of.” The shofar blows “wake up,” “return,” but it also reminds us, “we were spared.” The ram instead of Isaac, Jesus instead of us.
Drifting is not good. It is out of control. It is placing your walk with God in neutral. Don’t drift. Return. Begin where you last wandered off. God will be there. It is you who drifted. God has always and will always be in control.