Tilting (Friday Devotional)

“Thus says the Lord: Cursed are those who trust in mere mortals and make mere flesh their strength, whose hearts turn away from the Lord. They shall be like a shrub in the desert, and shall not see when relief comes. They shall live in the parched places of the wilderness, in an uninhabited salt land. Blessed are those who trust in the Lord, whose trust is the Lord. They shall be like a tree planted by water, sending out its roots by the stream. It shall not fear when heat comes, and its leaves shall stay green; in the year of drought it is not anxious, and it does not cease to bear fruit.”

- Jeremiah 17:5-8

If you’ve ever played pinball, you’ve experienced it. The lights are flashing, the music is playing, the ball is hitting every target, and your high score is just around the corner. Then in your enthusiasm, you bump the machine ever so slightly and it all comes screeching to a halt. The lights go dark, the music stops, and, most significantly, the buttons you’d been mashing so effectively only a moment ago are rendered useless as the dreaded four letter message flashes across the screen in front of you: TILT. Game over.

Life has a way of “tilting” on you. You’ll have spells where it seems like everything is going your way—you’re excelling at work, your family is healthy, your finances are secure, and the future’s never looked brighter. Then all of a sudden, something unexpected hits—a natural disaster, a severe diagnosis, a layoff, a betrayal—and that bad news sends you tumbling down a well of grief and despair. All the good that came before is suddenly forgotten and inconsequential.

When your life is built upon your own dreams and achievements, the things you’ve built and accumulated, you are just waiting for the tilt, because few of us are strong enough to withstand the harshest blows life can throw at us. So Scripture encourages you to place your faith in the Lord whose power is matchless, whose wisdom is immeasurable, and whose love never ends. Life is unstable and prone to tilts, but God is steadfast.

You can never predict when you’ll be set back on your heels, which event will push you further than you’ve ever been pushed. But when the Lord is your foundation, you have the assurance that nothing can tilt you beyond the point of redemption. Even if you lose a round or two, life with God means you never have to worry about game over.