Occasionally, my talks with God go off in unplanned directions, and I find myself caught up in a concept or principle that I can’t let go of because it seems to contain lessons in it that I need to explore. For instance, I was intrigued recently by how incredibly spoiled I’ve become by conveniences I take for granted. One of those conveniences happened to be the automatic transmission in my car. It occurred to me that not having to shift gears is really nice, and thinking about shifting gears reminded me of my first real driving lesson and how challenging it was to learn exactly ‘when and how’ to perform that operation.
An Early ‘Life Coach’ ~
My uncle, Smokey, served as our “go-to” family mechanic and was also the father figure and mentor who guided me through those things a country boy needs to learn as he grows up. He taught me how to deal with the most compelling and important issues in life … like fish hooks, firearms, and females. And when I reached 15, he also became my driving instructor.
Smokey had an old ‘49 Ford coupe that he had rescued from a junkyard and partially renovated. It would be a treasured classic today, but back then it mainly served as an extra knock around farm vehicle. That made it an excellent tool for teaching a knuckleheaded 15-year-old kid how to drive well enough to pass the license exam road test. I was thrilled at the prospect of getting behind the wheel, but unfortunately, the session didn’t unfold quite like I expected.
Safety First ~
To begin with, my uncle directed me to the passenger side as he slid behind the wheel and said that he’d be driving us to where we would begin our practice run. That seemed reasonable, but then he didn’t head down the lane toward the road. Instead, he turned the old Ford out toward the back pasture. When I asked why we were going out there, he explained that I’d be less likely to kill somebody or pull some bonehead stunt that could land both of us in jail.
Thankfully, no injuries or deaths resulted and eventually I learned to shift gears without giving either of us whiplash. I also learned what an important procedure the shifting of gears is in the process of getting us from where we were to where we wanted to go safely, smoothly, and efficiently. The way most of our cars shift gears now is quite different than it was back then, but the basic principle hasn’t changed, and the simple lessons I learned about shifting gears are enlightening when considered from a spiritual perspective, as well.
Fundamental Principles ~
In teaching me how to handle a car, he emphasized the role of transmissions and gears and hammered home a few things that I should never forget. They’re worth remembering in a spiritual context, as well, which we’ll get to later, but here’s the condensed version:
Cars (or people) aren’t designed to make the whole journey in any one gear. A trip of any substantial duration will require use of all of them.
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- Paying attention is vital. Things like the sound of the engine (or the quality of conversations), changing conditions (temptations), different road surfaces (relationships), and unexpected obstacles (sins we commit) are keys to knowing when it’s time to shift into a different gear. Ignoring those signs can be damaging – even lethal.
- Remember the clutch (confession and repentance). You can’t shift to another gear until you disengage from the one you’re in.
- Make the transition as smooth as possible (pray your way through it). Sudden, impulsive, and jerky changes aren’t good for the car or the people in it.
- Don’t shift gears just to try to show off (avoid pride). Eventually, you’ll pay a price for that kind of behavior.
So if we apply this principle to our journey through life, it’s apparent that there’s an array of mental, emotional, spiritual, and relational “gears” involved in getting us from where we are to where we believe God wants us to be. And what is true of us as individuals applies to the Church of Jesus Christ, as well, because collectively, we followers of Jesus are the Church.
Shifting Gears toward God’s Objective ~
Think for a minute about the history of God’s people. Again and again, their internal “gears” had to be shifted, and different levels of activity had to be applied in order to adapt to
changing conditions to get where He intended them to be. They repeatedly faced times when life could not go on like it had before. For example, they had to shift from being slaves in Egypt to freed refugees in a barren wilderness. Then they had to transition from wilderness wanderers to an army of warriors in a land filled with enemies. They didn’t move from a collection of tribes with no country to a unified nation without shifting some major gears.
The objective of this discussion is to remind us we’re pilgrims, too, and we’re facing some dramatic changes as well. The moral and spiritual landscape in this country is not what it was a few generations ago and it’s time to shift some gears. The cultural terrain surrounding us is flashing warning signs every day that we’re headed toward some of the roughest roads we’ve ever seen. To think we’ll all be fine if we just continue to drift along on cruise control, is a recipe for disaster. We’re no longer living in the 1960s and 70s, and if we refuse to acknowledge that, we’re only going to ensure that the church in America becomes more and more ineffective and irrelevant. Paul made it clear that we’re all in this together, which makes it both a collective and an individual problem:
For I say, through the grace given to me, to everyone who is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think soberly, as God has dealt to each one a measure of faith. For as we have many members in one body, but all the members do not have the same function, so we, being many, are one body in Christ, and individually members of one another. (Romans 12:3–5 NKJV)
An Indispensable Step ~
We can’t engage a new gear until we disengage from the old one, so we must begin by detaching ourselves from the false notion that the work of the ministry belongs only to the people on the platform on Sundays. Paul refuted that in his dissertation about gifts. We all have them, but they’re fruitless unless we use them. He said:
Having then gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us, let us use them. (Romans 12:6)
The road ahead is steeper and the terrain more challenging than anything we’ve ever 
encountered. Moving ahead begins with disengaging from our complacency and remembering that Jesus didn’t die to redeem just that part of us that shows up on Sunday. They didn’t just nail parts of Him to the cross. He gave it all for us, and shifting all we have under His sovereignty is our only reasonable response. We’re seeing signs that there’s some positive gear shifting going on in churches around the country, and that’s tremendously encouraging. But maybe we need to join them and do some shifting ourselves.
One thing is clear. If we ignore moral and spiritual conditions like these and refuse to rise up and shine the light of God’s Truth on them, beginning with our own lives, we may soon find the Church of Jesus Christ in this country sitting on a side road, broken down, silenced, and going nowhere….
“TWEETABLES” ~ Click to tweet and share from the pull quotes below. Each one links directly back to this article through Twitter.
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- “It’s time to shift gears. The cultural terrain surrounding us is flashing warning signs every day that we’re headed toward some of the roughest roads we’ve ever seen. To think we’ll all be fine if we just drift along on cruise control is a recipe for disaster.” @GallaghersPen (Click here to Tweet)
- “We’re no longer living in the 1960s and 70s, and if we refuse to acknowledge that, we’re only going to ensure that the church in America becomes more and more ineffective and irrelevant.” GallaghersPen (Click here to Tweet)
- “The road ahead is steeper, and the terrain is more challenging than anything we’ve ever encountered. Moving ahead begins with disengaging from our complacency and remembering that Jesus didn’t die to redeem just that part of us that shows up on Sunday.” @GallaghersPen (Click here to Tweet)
- “If we ignore these moral & spiritual warning signs & refuse to rise up & shine the light of God’s Truth on them, beginning w/our own lives, we may soon find the Church of Jesus Christ in this country sitting on a side road, broken down, silenced & going nowhere.” @GallaghersPen (Click here to Tweet)
Check out Ron’s book, “Right Side Up Thinking in an Upside Down World ~ Looking at the World through the Lens of Biblical Truth” 
Gallagher's Pen ~ 
So now I know where I fit! I was others’ “Uncle Smokey. ” LOL I’m the one the family calls out to when things need repairing and kids need to be taught how to drive. : -D Other than that, they leave me muttering in the corner and bring me cake at family gatherings. All kidding aside, great lesson here Mr. Ron. When I think back to my adopted dad teaching me that you didn’t even need a clutch to shift gears if you learned to listen to the engine. I can hear daddy now, leaning over and patting my knee with a reassuring, “it’ll tell you when you need to shift to a higher gear, learn to listen.” Of course, he had to teach me how to tear down manual transmissions and replace gears and synchronization rings too. As for clutches, how many folks do you know who know how to adjust the tension on the fingers of a pressure plate or put a new ring gear on a flywheel. But, again, I tend to digress. The same can be said for learning to listen to God to know when to move forward, when to clutch, and when to gear down into a lower gear as trouble (trial and temptation) awaits.
As for learning to drive, I taught my kids, and many others, using a manual transmission. By my logic, if they didn’t have the coordination needed to operate a manual transmission, they didn’t need to be on the road anyway. These days, my tractor serves as a good substitute. A pasture is still the safest place to teach. Although, there used to be a time when the mall parking lots were empty on a Sunday afternoon. That’s where I taught myself (Florida boy here, remember) to drive on snow and ice after relocating to the Chicago area.
As I was reading along, I thought about knowing what range I needed to be in and what purpose they served. I thought about the lower gears (remember driving three on the tree my friend?) and how important low gear was when you were in that pasture? While we went slower, we also had more torque available that could remove us from sticky (er muddy) situations. Boy, does that sound like society today. Spiritual mud that wants to entrap us and pull us under. Higher gears (from 3rd to 13th, depending upon what you were driving) were meant for cruising along. When you were able to “get up to speed” and head into town on the paved roads, that’s when those were most useful.
Of course, we all learned what happens if you try and start out in a higher gear. You’ll kill the engine. There’s a lot to be said about knowing what gear to be in with our Christian walk too. When we’re first starting out after our salvation, we need to be in granny low so we can gain as much traction as we can. As we grow in His Word and His wisdom, we can slip our lives into second and start picking up speed. By the time we hit third, we should be using the spiritual gifts afforded us for kingdom work. We should be picking up friends to come along for the ride with us at this point. But as we pick up those new friends to go “joy”-riding (see what I did there), we have to remember to gear down and match our pace to them so we can help them learn to shift gears as they grow in their faith.
I thought too of how I used to try and impress Cheryl, Amelia, Judy, Susan, Vicki, and Heather by shifting gears without using the clutch. It didn’t take much to impress girls back then, did it? My prideful behavior (see what I can do) almost always led me into trouble. A few transmission repairs too.
Last, I thought about hills. Oh, how I dreaded hills with a manual transmission. As I was learning to operate a manual transmission, hills meant one of two things were likely to happen. I would pop the clutch and spin the rear tires (yes, boys and girls, vehicles were rear-wheel drive back then) or I would stall the vehicle an incense all the older drivers behind me as I had to restart the car without it rolling backwards into an awaiting bumper. As Christians, we often find ourselves fighting to go uphill in our faith. And in that journey, we’ll invariably come across red lights and stop signs, usually on the steepest of inclines. As we learned to use a combination of brake and clutch to best navigate those inclined roadways, we also learn to use a combination of the Holy Spirit and God’s word to help us navigate those steep inclines we must walk up in our spiritual journey.
Great lessons here my friend. Here’s praying that we’re all in high range and able to cruise into home on smooth-paved roads. God’s blessings to you and yours sir.
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I’m so sorry to be so late responding to this very gracious and insightful dissertation, J.D. We had company and had to get to the airport yesterday morning and it was sort of whirlwind day. I read it in the car but didn’t want to attempt responding on my phone. Anyhow, you managed once again to get more practical application in your response than there was in the piece. Mrs. Diane is siting over there smiling and probably thinking, “Why didn’t you say all that stuff about cars and gears clutches and stuff?”
I loved the comment about being your family’s “Smokey” and I’m not surprised about that at all. It fits everything we’ve come to know and love about you–always ready to reach our and help somebody with whatever you’ve got. And it is surprising how many things we learned to do along the way that so many younger people have no idea how to begin to address. I remember one day when I was putting new brake pads on my car and a much younger neighbor happened to come by. He watched me for a few minutes and remarked that I must be some kind of genius to have figured out how that system worked and how to put all those pieces back together. He apparently paid somebody hundreds of dollars to do it on his car. I told him that there were no genius cells anywhere to be found in me–just grew up on a farm where if something breaks, you learn how to fix it.
Jesus was forever pointing out commonplace things in the lives of people around Him and using things they recognized to open their understanding to spiritual principles they hadn’t seen. I love imagining those “Oh, wow… I never saw that!” moments that went on around Him, and I love experiencing them in the here and now. That’s one of the things that blesses us so much about how you relate the things God shows you. He gets to do through you the kinds of things He loves to do for folks like us, and the blessings just erupt in all directions.
So, my Brother, you’ve brought another wave of smiles and heartfelt “amens” to the Gallagher household and we are grateful. May the skills you learned over the years (whether with keyboards or wrenches) be windows through which multitudes of people get to see things they would never have seen otherwise, and may the fruit of those lessons bring glory to the One who enabled you to learn them and who continues to teach through them. I don’t need to tell you to stay out of the heat as much as possible, but please try not to overdo it. We need you around for a lot of years to come.
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