I was traveling down the highway in the cab of a large flatbed truck, sitting next to an Over the Road (OTR) driver who was new to my church congregation. Over our seven-hour ride, I asked him many questions and learned about some of the ins-and-outs of the business. I had just asked him about training for becoming an OTR driver when he down shifted and pulled off at the nearest exit. We stopped before hitting the stop sign at the top of the ramp and I heard a loud psssshhhh as he popped the air brakes on. “Load problem!” he said, as he opened the door and hopped out.

I followed him out to see what he was doing.

I noticed that on our flatbed there was a piece of cardboard hanging off of one of the straps. The driver climbed up onto the trailer and began cutting the box open further, pushing and pulling on that heavy, thick cardboard crate. After only a couple of minutes of repositioning and shifting the load, he determined that the problem was not dangerous.

Back in the cab, he explained that at high driving speeds and with extremely heavy load weights involved, little problems become huge issues way faster than one could imagine. He told me: “take care of the little things and they don’t become big issues.” Issues that cause messes almost certainly affect other’s lives as well.

I never knew that the trucking industry had so many spiritual applications! How many times do we find it easy to let the little things in life slide? It’s easy to think that small things will stay small and won’t grow into huge issues. Yet at the speed of life and with the heavy burdens we sometimes carry, if we don’t deal with problems when they are small, they can snowball out of control quickly. Real hurt will happen, both to ourselves and to others.

Don’t give little things the chance to become big issues.

Be a worker who correctly handles the word of truth and deal with issues upfront. Every tough situation, no matter how seemingly small, is a reminder to stop and check in with the Holy Spirit, and let Him guide us if there is danger to be aware of.

Prayer for the week:

Lord, thank you for the help You provide us in life: You really are the Wonderful Counselor. Help me not to rely on my own judgement on how to handle life’s troubles, but to constantly keep my eyes fixed on You. Keep my pride from causing me to let things slide that shouldn’t be ignored. Lord, thanks for noticing. In your holy name, amen.

Mark Eigsti is senior pastor of Freedom Church of the Nazarene in Lebanon, Missouri, USA.

Please note: All facts, figures, and titles were accurate to the best of our knowledge at the time of original publication but may have since changed.

Written for devotions with Holiness Today.