I'm like a broken shopping cart

We had caregroup last night and one of the wise comments (about how our natural tendency is to drift away from godliness) left me thinking about shopping carts. Really!

Have you ever had a shopping cart with a broken or stuck wheel? You have to literally fight with that cart the whole way through the store. If it's constantly drifting to the right, you must pull/push your cart to the left just to stay straight. Don't dare get distracted and forget to wrestle with your cart or you'll slam right into the shelves and canned goods will fall on your head.

Well, I believe I am like that broken shopping cart. My natural tendency is to drift away from God and godliness. To stay close in any relationship is work, but especially in my relationship to God. I have a sinful nature that constantly wants to vere away from the straight path. I have to fight that tendency - my shopping cart, so to speak. The tricky thing about my "life" cart is that it will vere off in either direction, left or right. I have to be watchful. Am I going straight or heading into the ice cream on the left or the cereal on the right? Licentiousness or legalism? Condemnation or self-righteousness? (You get the picture.)

Thankfully, there is another difference in my "life" cart - the sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit. The cart at Wal-Mart doesn't improve as I shop, but by God's grace and work in my life I will. I want to be watchful; I don't want to float down the aisle, banging into shelves on either side. So, If you see me holding ice on my head from a collision with the canned good section, remind me of God's available grace to keep my cart straight!