Rollover Pass: What We Try to Hide - The Christian Online Magazine

Rollover Pass: What We Try to Hide

The ship’s captain stared into the darkness. The Gulf’s waters were still as the water only reflected the stars above on this moonless night. At dawn they would sail into Galveston Bay. As he looked over the side of the ship, he saw three men unloading some cargo into a rowboat. Actually he could hear them better than he could see them.

They struggled to load the barrels into the tiny rowboat. The captain didn’t want too much cargo unloaded because that would raise questions. He only needed enough to allow he and his men to make a tidy profit.

Once the cargo was loaded into the rowboat, two of the men started rowing toward the shore in the silent darkness. They had made the trip before and even in the darkness they found their way to a little piece of land a few miles east of Galveston.

On shore they began unloading the cargo. Then they began to roll the cargo over the small piece of land. From there the cargo would go to the markets in Galveston and points beyond, avoiding the tariffs charged at Galveston’s docks. Thus today’s popular fishing hole got its name, Rollover Pass, Texas.

Even though the men lived over hundred and fifty years ago, we have one thing in common. We try to hide some of our own spiritual cargo. Trying to convince everyone and ourselves that all is well with our soul.

On Sunday mornings we get ready for church. At times we leave a barrel of bitterness at home. No need for the people at church to see our bitterness. At the parking lot we leave a sack of depression beside the car. We wouldn’t want anyone to think we are not full of joy. The list is endless, anger, disappointments, sorrow on and on the list goes. A heavy heart turns a smile into a frown.

Once inside the church we become for a couple of hours the “Cheerful Christian.” Can’t let the anyone know that we are feeling down and out. People ask, “How we are doing?” We smile and say, “Fine.” All the while we are dying inside. Funny thing about church is we would be surprised at the number of people who play the same game. We worship in speechless anxiety, or as someone else said “live lives of quiet desperation.”

We make it through the song service and actual listen to the choir. We hang with the preacher for ten minutes, and then we start to worry about our hidden cargo. With the final “Amen” we hurry outside. We grab our sack of depression, and quickly throw it in the car. Then we hurry home to all of our other hidden cargo.

Sadly we play the same game at school or at work. Some of us play the game with our family as well. We only kid ourselves when we think they don’t know. The people at work, school, and church usually figure it out. The pastor, well there is this thing called discernment, he probably knows as well.

We might ask, “Where is God in all of this?” Well he is waiting for us to come to him with all of our problems. Waiting for us to be honest with him and ourselves. Waiting for us to unload all of our unwanted cargo at the foot of the cross. Then he can start loading a barrel full of love, a sack full of faith, along with a bag of hope inside our hearts.

Servings from God’s Chuck Wagon: For if our hearts condemns us, God is greater than our hearts, and knows all things. I John 3: 20

Campfire Mediations: Think about how a church should be a place of healing instead of a place of concealing.

Godly Spurs: Realize that God knows all and sees all.