Sand Mountain Sermonette 85
Psalm 55:22; Psalm 55; Matthew 11:28; Peter 5:6-7
The Day the Frozen Chickens Went for a Ride
“Cast your burden upon the Lord and He will sustain you. He will never allow the righteous to be shaken.” Psalm 55:22
One afternoon following my father’s funeral several years ago, I was sitting on the front porch of my parent’s home in Albertville with my mom, my wife Nancy, and my Aunt Sue, when my Aunt Sarah and her husband, my Uncle Billy, drove up to offer the family their support. And while we were sitting there, Uncle Billy told a story about my dad that I had never heard before. It occurred back in the early 1960’s when my dad was driving the big tractor-trailer trucks for a living. It seems that dad invited Uncle Billy to ride with him to pick up a trailer load of frozen chickens somewhere out west and then deliver them a fair distance away.
Uncle Billy said they had been traveling down the road just fine for a little while when all of the sudden, something went wrong with the truck’s transmission as far as I now understand it, in which, as one professional trucker recently told me, “Your dad probably had to keep his right hand on the shifter because of the weight distribution misalignment with the trailer of frozen chickens.” And he added, “Your dad was good!” Uncle Billy said he had never seen anything like it before—my dad holding constantly onto that shifter with one hand and the big steering wheel with the other! And yes, dad and Uncle Billy made it to their destination in time but unfortunately the chickens had thawed to the point the receiving department would not accept them. But things still worked out okay for my dad who, although he was upset, soon got over it and couldn’t wait to make his next run.
Proper weight distribution is not only crucial in truck driving but is vital to the Christian life as well. We often carry unnecessarily heavy weights on our backs that in turn produce worry, discouragement, and bitterness in our lives. In Psalm 55, David was dealing with the weight of an intimate friend who had misaligned their relationship by betraying him. But his response after a season of discouragement was a healthy one for mind, soul, and body: to cast his burden on the Lord who would sustain him through this very difficult time in his life. And why should we “release” our burdens into the Lord’s hands? Because we can trust in His sustaining power, patience, and love to be true to His promise that, “He will never allow the righteous to be shaken.”
Did a problem you’re facing keep you awake last night? Remember David who did not deny the “burden” but who cast it on the Lord by taking his hands off both shifter and steering wheel as he let God do the driving and deal with all the consequences he was facing in His life at that time. “Come unto Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest (Matthew 11:28). (Also, read I Peter 5:6-7). Praise God from Whom All Blessings Flow!
Pastor Louie