Gray Trousers and a Brown Coat.

The tragedy of our age is that we often abandon the only one who can save us from our dilemma. We leave him out.

It was 2:00am one morning when the telephone rang in the home of a well-known surgeon. The Doctor was told that a young man lay near death from a car accident. The patient was in a small hospital 20kms away and the surgeon was the only one within calling distance that could possibly save the man’s life. He hurriedly dressed and began to drive with haste to the nearby town.

As he was leaving his town, he stopped for a red traffic light. At that moment someone opened the door, pulled a gun, and pointed it at him, ordering him to drive on. All his efforts to explain the urgency of his situation were fruitless. Before he reached the edge of town the gunman ordered the Doctor to stop and get out of the car. Again, he tried to explain, but the helpless surgeon watched as a man in gray trousers, brown coat, and a cap pulled over his head to cover his eyes drove away in his car.

By the time the doctor reached the hospital he was told it was too late. One of the nurses said, “The boy’s father is here and needs comforting, will you speak to him?” When the doctor walked into the waiting room, he found the sobbing father. He was wearing a brown coat, gray trousers and by his side was the cap.

This true happening is a parable of life. We often force out of our lives the very one who could help us. Everything we do occupies our time so that we do not have time for God. Some even try and work there way to Jesus through Bible study and prayer or other spiritual gymnastics. But it does not work. Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life.” This is the most comprehensive claim ever made. He did not say, “Let me show you the way, or prepare the way, or make a way for you, or even to open a way.” He said, “I am the way!” We do not need a way to the way!

This is a staggering claim because it was not a claim to point the way to God, or to bring the truth about God, or even to show the life in God, but it was a claim to BE the way the truth and the life.

Is your life so structured that you force God out of your life – even with good things, when what we really need is God things. Push the pause button on your life from time to time and focus on what is important.