Winter tires

Something to think about: Jeremiah 29:11-13

It’s time.

Sitting in the waiting room of the mechanic’s, smelling rubber and hearing the lifts and the impact wrenches, looking around at new rims and stacks of summer tires with shallower treads being replaced.  

You know winter is coming when we change your tires.   It’s just about the last Canadian bastion of resistance to fall’s ending. But we need those tires if we’re going to drive safely in the winter (that’s my public service announcement for the day!). Of course, we could choose to leave the summer tires on and have a greater risk of accidents–or just leave the car in the garage until spring. Let it stand still. We’d be standing still too. 

This verse in Jeremiah is about a people who thought they had to stand still.   It’s been so misquoted that we often only hear the first part.   “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. “  I’ve heard those words used to explain how if you’re good, God just gives you things and we don’t have to do a single thing about it.   If we’re good, it just falls in our laps.  Grace does that sometimes. A lot of times. 

But if we back up the lens a minute, the message in this case is different.

These words are written to a people who are stuck in exile, far from home, and who know their land has been totally destroyed.  They are without hope and think God has forgotten them.  They think that God doesn’t want to journey with them any longer, and so it doesn’t matter they do or what kind of ‘tires they have on their car’, they are not going anywhere. 

God says no, that’s not it.   I love you.   Your journey doesn’t stop.   But you have to get up and move. I’ve given you the tools and ways to do that.  The second part of this passage is so important:

 Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.

In the middle of a changing journey, in the middle of feeling like they were going to be stuck in exile and never get home, in the middle of discouragement and fear that any movement forward would be too risky, God shows them how to move on.   God gives them a set of winter tires so they can travel through the next season. Here’s what that sounds like:

Call on me.  Pray.  I’m going to listen.  I am already listening.  Seek me with all your heart.   I’m here.  Let’s journey together. Let’s travel through this next season of your life as a people into the plans I have for you.  Put on those tires, you’re going to need them. 

Where in our journey of faith do we get stuck?  Prayer, calling on God, and seeking Christ can show us where to go in our next season, our next adventure.   Sometimes, we can’t get out of being stuck, frustrated, and disillusioned if we keep using the same things we always have to move forward.   We need to change the tires.   God has bigger plans in mind.  We don’t put winter tires on just for ourselves.   We do it to carry others safely.  How can we help someone else find hope on their journey?

So here’s an invitation to come change tires.  Come explore with us.  Come join us in prayer, in seeking God’s plans for this community.   Come join us in studying and listening to God’s word and getting ready for the next season.  

When we drive with winter tires, we drive differently. And that’s necessary for the winter tires to do what they are supposed to do.  We still go through rough storms and weather, but we’re better equipped for the time we are in. As God brings us to hope and a future, we’re going to drive differently through seasons and changes, constantly seeking where Jesus calls us to be. 

Ready for the road trip?

Peace and blessings, 

Susan

Photo courtesy of Ruta Automotive, Burlington and content © Susan Kerr 2024.   May not be reproduced or circulated without permission of the author.

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