Jesus, Take the Wheel

The other night I was struggling to sleep. My mind, as it often does, would just not turn off. As I raced from thought to thought the title of the song Jesus Take The Wheel came from, it seemed at the time, nowhere. Without a pause the image of me running on a hamsters wheel with the wheel being inside a silhouette of my head over took my thoughts. I tickled myself making the pun for Jesus to take that wheel, and not the steering wheel the song is referring to. I then thought of the song and not just it's title. What made it even come to mind I wondered. I hadn't heard it in years and am really indifferent to it. I correlated the image of me running on the hamster wheel and asking Jesus to take over my thoughts so I could rest. I fell asleep working the details of the image out in my mind.

The following night I laid in bed, again, struggling to sleep. I asked Jesus what he had to tell me. Next, I was sitting up looking for scripture about being still - but not Psalm 46:10. There was another one I felt like I needed to know. One that I could use as a reminder somedays, to stop whatever busy task I was doing and be still. Luke 5:16, "But he would withdraw to desolate places and pray." That was it. I was reminded that if we are to be like Jesus then we need to act like Jesus. Once again I laid down to sleep, and again, sleep didn't come. My thoughts then jumped to something our pastor said on a recent Sunday. He said that when he prays it is "hard to tell when I've stopped rejoicing and I've started giving thanks and when I've started lifting up prayers because they're all intertwined and they're all interwoven and suddenly you find yourself in that place of praying without ceasing because it's all the back and forth of 'Lord, I love you' and then just receiving from him." I couldn't have agreed more. So what was God telling me? He was telling me to make it a habit to stop, withdraw from what I am doing, and pray - and that prayer doesn't have to be the image of prayer that society has casted on us. God has shown me that he hears my prayers when I am creating just as well as when I am on my knees. He has taught me to understand that the gift of art is a gift that he, himself, gave me and that it is a personal way he communicates with me.

So, as once again, I laid myself down to sleep, I saw the completed work of Jesus, Take the Wheel and I heard the words to make the time to withdraw, and pray, with pencil, or paint, or pastel in hand.

*The sermon Rejoice In the Lord by Aaron Santor and can be heard here.