I don’t know if or how familiar you are with tumbleweeds.  Being born and raised in the southwest parts of Kansas, it seemed sometimes we were inundated with these pesky weeds.  The winds caused them to get caught up in the wind breaks and in drought or raging wind became an added fuel to fire. To me, a Kansas farm girl, it made for fun chasing after one in the summer winds and heat.  Either way, growing up with tumbleweeds was a familiar nuisance or added fun however you looked at it.

My family enjoys skiing and this past spring we drove towards Colorado to enjoy a few days in Steamboat Springs. The winds were high, which made driving difficult causing our vehicle to  rock from side to side.  I’m an anxious driver anyways when it comes to driving on mountain roads, so the strong winds made my nerves all the more anxious while driving through and squinting with each thump of a tumbleweed beneath my wheels.  With my knuckles white from gripping the steering wheel so tight and my muscles in my arms longing for a reprieve, God nudged my heart to look and take notice of the tumbleweeds.  I am not kidding when I say there were tumbleweeds by the multitudes being freed from the fences that held them. They covered the road in large numbers desperately darting across the highway as if fleeing from their captors.  As the wind continued to rock the car, I watched the tumbleweeds as they escaped the grips of the fences for their shot at freedom only to meet their demise by the wheels of the cars passing by.  Many of the ones that happened to make it across the highway were caught up yet again in another fence to hold them anxiously until their next shot at freedom.

This made me think of sin and the things in this life that hold me captive and give me a longing to be set free.  I may not necessarily get run over by a car when I start to flee from my sin but I can definitely feel “run over” when I don’t confront what I’m running from.  Running from my sin to enjoy a false freedom, I grow tired and find myself longing to be set free again.  I realize that this very  “feeling” of freedom is not what I was seeking and find myself becoming the very tumbleweed that struggles to make it to the other side only to meet my demise in the wheels of the cars passing by.

We do have true freedom in Christ and a promise that He will never leave us or forsake us. He never promised us a life without struggle or the tumbleweeds that so easily ensnare us. He doesn’t do life as the world does. He does give us freedom in Him that is not understood by the world. When knuckles are white and muscles ache to be released from the very sin we run from, He says “Press into me, cast your cares upon me.”  In due time, as we confront our sin for what it is, turn from it, seek repentance, He will deliver us from what keeps hold of us!  Doing life on our own is hard enough but doing life with Him is a blessed assurance that He is with us every step along the way.  We will be caught up in many fences that will snag and take hold of us along the way however, we must persevere and continue life in Christ and He will deliver us to that open field which is heaven.