Backseat Driver
Between driving my son to his various activities and commuting to work, I spend a lot of time in the car. Hence the recent blogs involving cars. Anyway, I recently heard the song, “Backseat Driver” by TobyMac for the first time. And it hit me, how often am I the “backseat driver” to Jesus? As I asked this question, thoughts began sailing through my mind. It was like a flood gate of analogies and ideas opened and I could not seem to stop thinking about how our relationship to Jesus is similar to a car and its passengers.
Our lives represent a car. As children, our parents drive our cars (guide our lives) but eventually most of us learn to drive our own vehicles. Then as we drive through life, Jesus comes knocking on our window and asks if we will let Him in. At this point, we have the choice of ignoring Jesus altogether; of rolling down the window and talking for a moment, only to drive away without Him; of unlocking the door and allowing Him to climb into the passenger seat; or to go so far as to hand over the keys and let Him drive the car. In all of these scenarios, we are in control of deciding how much “control” if any, we give to Jesus. Based on this idea, it is easier to understand why children trust and hand over their lives to Jesus so much more easily than adults do. It is more natural for them to do so since they have not yet been in control of their lives. They aren’t afraid to relinquish what they have not yet experienced. Now, us adults, handing over the keys to our cars (and thus, our lives) is a bit more difficult.
(Note: for this analogy, asking Jesus into the car, whether as the driver or the passenger, is equivalent to asking Him into our hearts. When we do so, we initiate a personal relationship with Him and are the recipients of His gift of eternal life! So no matter what, life with Jesus is a win win for us, but we determine the depth of the relationship we want to have with Him).
Looking back at my relationship with Jesus over the years, I think I have experienced each of the situations above. As a child, I easily accepted Jesus as my Lord and Savior and followed Him with little to no questions—I simply handed Him the keys to my heart and let Him drive my car. If it was His will, I did as He asked. As a teenager, however, when life got so much more complicated, I asked Jesus to step out of my car and hand the keys back over to me. I then proceeded to drive away from Him as fast as I could. The unique thing about this situation is that He never really left. He kept hanging around my car, popping up in my rearview mirror, waving hello, and letting me know that He was still around and still wanted to be apart of my life. It was kind of annoying, but you know what, I eventually rolled down my window. I think at first, I did it to yell at Him—to let Him know how angry and hurt I was. I don’t know how many times I rolled that window down and spoke with Him and then drove away; but at some point, I asked Him if he would forgive me and would come back into my car and take over the driving again.
This arrangement lasted for a while and then, I think I started offering my own tips and tricks for how His driving could be better. I bet I was the ultimate "backseat driver” to God. Well, you guessed it, at some point, I moved back into the driver seat and pushed Him to the passenger side. Why? I guess the need for control made me loose site of what a great driver Jesus is and I thought I could do better. And you know, I really think I remained in the driver seat with Jesus riding shotgun for the past several years. I listened to His thoughts and advice; I let Him guide me to many awesome places; and my faith continued to grow, strengthen and mature; but I remained in the driver’s seat. I never allowed myself to relinquish full control over to Him.
Well, I must say that life is kind of funny. You see, this past year, I crashed my metaphoric car. I totaled it. As I sat looking at the crumpled mess before me, all those hours and conversations I shared with Jesus as He road shotgun beside me comforted me and gave me the confidence to hand the keys back to Him. I was done driving. I relinquished myself, my life, all that I am over to my Heavenly Father. And you know what, I am at peace and He is showing me that the views from the passenger side when He is driving, are far greater than any I ever experienced as the driver. Still every once in a while, I offer up a driving tip and He gives me a little smirk with a twinkle in His eye and asks if I am sure I want to follow my will? We chuckle about it and I relax back into my seat, content to just be.
I can’t say that I won’t eventually slide back into the role of driver, since it is so easy to do in this world that we live in; but I will say that I am spending lots of time talking with Jesus and listening to Him through quiet times, music, and just resting in His presence in an effort to prevent the temptation to drive again from arising with in me. In the bible, the apostle Paul tells us to, “trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all ways acknowledge Him, and He will make straight your paths.” (Romans 5:8). To me this means that if I completely trust Jesus to guide my life, He will lead me where I need to go. So for now, I am content with Jesus piloting my car and me riding shotgun. And although I am sure that I will offer “backseat” driving tips from time to time, as long as I let Him do the driving, we’ll share a chuckle and I’ll relax back into my seat knowing that my path is straight and I’m where I need to be.