Bridge Collapses and Seatbelt Rules
Read The Daily:
“For this is how God loved the world: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.” – John 3:16
We had three rules when my kids were little. If we were ever driving and a bridge collapsed (yes, dramatic, but welcome to my brain), there were three things they had to do:
Break the window.
Unbuckle their seatbelt.
Swim your dad to the surface.
Because I’m not even joking—I’m the worst swimmer in our family. I sink. Like, immediately. My kids were six and five, and they already knew: Dad’s going down first, and they were the rescue crew. Funny as that is, there’s a deeper spiritual truth underneath it: we all sink without help. We get in over our heads. Life hits. Storms roll in. And too often, we act like it’s up to us to keep swimming—keep performing, proving, fixing, earning. If we just paddle hard enough, maybe we’ll be okay.
But that’s not the Gospel.
John 3:16 doesn’t say “God watched from the shore and shouted advice.” It says He gave. That means Jesus didn’t coach from a distance. He dove in. He came to rescue, not evaluate. He came to save, not supervise. But most of us flip it in our minds:
God loved, so I better behave.
God gave, so I better earn it.
And that’s how we miss the beauty of grace. It’s not a trade. It’s a gift. No strings. No scoreboard. Just love—deep, undeserved, life-giving love. And that’s the biggest lie Jesus came to drown.
Prayer for the Day
God what are you showing me? What am I going to do about it?
God help me to see one person that I can serve through a kind word, random act of kindness, or simple gift today?
Make sure you complete the reading or comment today.
Read The New Testament In A Year
“For the Kingdom of Heaven is like the landowner who went out early one morning to hire workers for his vineyard. He agreed to pay the normal daily wage and sent them out to work. “At nine o’clock in the morning he was passing through the marketplace and saw some people standing around doing nothing. So he hired them, telling them he would pay them whatever was right at the end of the day. So they went to work in the vineyard. At noon and again at three o’clock he did the same thing. “At five o’clock that afternoon he was in town again and saw some more people standing around. He asked them, ‘Why haven’t you been working today?’ “They replied, ‘Because no one hired us.’ “The landowner told them, ‘Then go out and join the others in my vineyard.’ “That evening he told the foreman to call the workers in and pay them, beginning with the last workers first. When those hired at five o’clock were paid, each received a full day’s wage. When those hired first came to get their pay, they assumed they would receive more. But they, too, were paid a day’s wage. When they received their pay, they protested to the owner, ‘Those people worked only one hour, and yet you’ve paid them just as much as you paid us who worked all day in the scorching heat.’ “He answered one of them, ‘Friend, I haven’t been unfair! Didn’t you agree to work all day for the usual wage? Take your money and go. I wanted to pay this last worker the same as you. Is it against the law for me to do what I want with my money? Should you be jealous because I am kind to others?’ “So those who are last now will be first then, and those who are first will be last.” Matthew 20:1-16
Ever since I first heard of your strong faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for God’s people everywhere, I have not stopped thanking God for you. I pray for you constantly, asking God, the glorious Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, to give you spiritual wisdom and insight so that you might grow in your knowledge of God. I pray that your hearts will be flooded with light so that you can understand the confident hope he has given to those he called—his holy people who are his rich and glorious inheritance. I also pray that you will understand the incredible greatness of God’s power for us who believe him. This is the same mighty power that raised Christ from the dead and seated him in the place of honor at God’s right hand in the heavenly realms. Now he is far above any ruler or authority or power or leader or anything else—not only in this world but also in the world to come. God has put all things under the authority of Christ and has made him head over all things for the benefit of the church. And the church is his body; it is made full and complete by Christ, who fills all things everywhere with himself. Ephesians 1:15-23