✌🏼The Parable of the Stuck Truck
How to get out of the mudslinging and make disciples
I haven't been able to write much this year. We had to make some tough choices and ended up taking a sabbatical from pastoring and moving to a fixer-up house we inherited. And by fixer-up... let's just say we were miraculously able to borrow an RV parked in the front yard to have a place to sleep. Other than the roof... just about everything else needed work to be habitable.
I'm an audio and computer guy who is now living by YouTube how-to videos. We are having the time of our lives, and I'm also learning, mistake by mistake how little of a pioneer I am. One of the funniest things lately, I was working on the sewer line under the RV in my brand-new coveralls. Me in coveralls. Humorous side note!
The space under the RV is tight, and I was trying to reach a line support that required most of me to be underneath... sliding inch by inch. And I got stuck. By my... ponytail. I couldn't go left, right - forward or back! I cracked myself up thinking oh well, at least I'm going out with my work boots and coveralls on!
I eventually wormed my way out but if you have ever seen that old sitcom, Green Acres - that's what we are living! I'm both learning a lot and learning that there is so much that I don't know!
We got a late winter East Texas thunderstorm this week. My dad used to call it a gully washer. The next day I was trying to move some stuff from the storage pod to a space I cleaned out in a work shed. The ground didn't seem that bad so I used our pickup.
After one load, I put it in drive to go get another load and of course, got stuck in the mud. The photo above is where I finally left it that night...
There's a parable in that stuck truck. I got stuck time after time in those ruts in the middle. The more I tried, the worse it got. Put some gravel down, tried some boards–the harder I tried the worse it got. So I managed to back up into a less soggy spot and called it a night. Hippie dude, defeated by mud.
The next day, after some sunshine, I put it in drive and just drove right through what had seemed impossible to firmer ground. Later that day, I realized a Jesus lesson in that scenario.
Here's the simple parable version. The more you try to struggle in the mud, the more stuck you get. It's better to back up and wait for the sunshine.
In the cultural chaos of our times, mudslinging is everywhere. As a Jesus follower and disciple-maker, the goal is to reach those stuck in the mud of life. But you make no progress just slinging more mud around. The problem just gets deeper and more difficult to navigate.
In Luke 10, Jesus sent the disciples out two by two on a harvest training mission with very specific instructions about looking for peace. In disciple-making this is referred to as the person of peace principle.
Luke 10:5-6 (NET)
5 Whenever you enter a house, first say, ʻMay peace be on this house!ʼ 6 And if a peace-loving person is there, your peace will remain on him, but if not, it will return to you.
He said if the peace you extend remains, stay. If no peace - don't stay. Even shake the dust off your feet and move on.
Jesus followers are blessed as peacemakers, not mudslingers. There's no peace in arguments and name-calling. Yet that's where so many people are stuck. Mud begets mud. It's peace that makes peace.
You harvest what you sow. No matter how hard you work to try to get out of the mud, no matter what methods you try - everything and everyone around will just get muddier. The cure for mud? Sunlight.
The cure for those stuck in cultural chaos and mudslinging? The Light of Jesus shining through us. And that light isn't better arguments. It's not proving others wrong. Jesus defined the Light for us.
Matthew 5:14-16 (NET)
14 You are the light of the world. A city located on a hill cannot be hidden. 15 People do not light a lamp and put it under a basket but on a lampstand, and it gives light to all in the house. 16 In the same way, let your light shine before people, so that they can see your good deeds and give honor to your Father in heaven.
So they can see your good deeds. How do you know? That kind of Light causes people to give honor to the Father. That's an impeccably high standard. Good News isn't bad news. You can't turn the dark off by slinging mud around, stuck in arguments. You can only turn the Light on.
Just like that pickup truck, once the mud starts flying - stop. There's no peace there. It's time to back up and shine some Light. And like the sunshine dried up the existing ruts that had once been a trap - the Light of Jesus brings peace that makes impassible possible.
No one was ever argued into the Kingdom. Shine the Light of your good works that only Jesus gets the credit for. Leave the mudslinging alone. You were created to be a Jesus follower and disciple-maker, not a monster truck.