Tailgating Jesus

Last month, I was driving on the streets of Tucson, Arizona, a city known for it’s bad traffic and maybe just a few drivers that challenge the speed limits.  One early morning when I was on my way to visit my grandmother, I looked in my rearview mirror to see I was being tailgated. . .by an elderly woman!

Our nation is facing a number of frightening things and it seems like it’s a particularly scary onslaught in the last month or two.  Terrorism abroad and here at home, ebola in our very city where we live and serve, war, beheadings, persecution, disease. . .I don’t know about you but my flesh tells me to worry and I can oblige very quickly if my focus is not on Jesus.  So as my mind drifts to dreadful thoughts and my heart starts to pump a little faster with anxiety, I realize that the answer, however simplistic as it may sound, is to tailgate Jesus.

Follow behind Him so closely that He fills up your view.  I’m sure you’ve noticed, for example with the big 18-wheelers, that the closer you follow behind them, the less of anything in front of or around them you can see.  Do that with Jesus, and it will help to minimize the fearful emotions in your life around you.

Put your nose so deeply and so often in His Word that your mind is saturated with what is lovely, admirable, excellent and praiseworthy (Philippians 4:8).  Read this passage in multiple translations.  Meditate on it and the things it suggests.  The battle is in the mind and this is definitely not the time for idleness.

Fix your eyes on Him so intently that any circumstances that worry you can only be seen through Jesus.  We teach our son that having a biblical worldview is like putting on a pair of glasses. . .that we see the world through the truths and promises of God from His Word.  Looking at terrorism, job insecurities, and ebola is no different.  See it all through the promises of Jesus!

And just think, instead of breathing in car exhaust from tailgating cars, you can breathe in God’s peace from tailgating Jesus!