“There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love.” 1 John 4:18

I must start with a confession: I don’t know how to drive a manual car. I know the concept of what happens, but I have never been shown how to drive with a clutch and shifting gears. The thought of having to do it in an emergency is scary as I would be trying to figure it out as I went and it would most likely be disastrous. But, as I reflect on the twists and turns of my life so far and the likely ones in the future, I can’t help but see some similarities between driving and our faith journey.

From what I understand, it’s all about pushing in the clutch at the right time to be able to shift as smoothly as possible. Isn’t that like God’s timing? If we are in too big of a rush to shift in our lives (a move, a job, relationship, etc.), then we can stall out. Or even the opposite is true-if we are too afraid to make a change, even if we feel like it’s what God wants us to do, we can miss opportunities.

Then there’s all the gears. Shifting from first to second as you gain speed, but also shifting down when you need to slow down. It can be exciting to pursue something new and you hurry up to add that to your list of activities or achievements. But then you want more and more. The challenge comes with making sure you are prepared for each next gear and not getting ahead of God in the plan. The flip side is downshifting, or knowing when and what to give up as your body is slowing down. The challenge comes in accepting the changes physically and mentally and doing what is best for you, not what others expect of you. This downshifting can be applied throughout your life as you make adjustments to how you spend your time. This comes with a form of grief as things aren’t going to be like they were. I told a coworker the other day how almost everything in my life has had major changes in the past 5 years, including so many changes at my job, stepping back from serving at church, and stepping into writing and speaking about my faith. Throughout it all, I faced more intense mental health struggles, but I also could see that God was always with me. 

All this talk of shifting can be applied to your faith journey as well. We can get on auto-pilot, going through the motions, and not want to make any changes (shifts) because we’re comfortable. But Jesus didn’t call us to be comfortable. He called us to love. It may mean putting ourselves in an uncomfortable position to reach and encourage others. For me, that means sharing about my faith and mental health journey. It may mean going to serve the homeless or visiting the imprisoned. As the Scripture said, perfect love drives out fear. We as humans aren’t perfect, but Jesus is. We may feel the fear of the unknown (I know I have), but we need to look at who the driver is on our journey. The answer is Jesus.

How will you driven to serve and show God’s love this week?