What do you depend on in an emergency?

Memorial Day morning was perfect for a long bike ride: About 60 degrees, almost no wind, and very little traffic because of the holiday. I decided on a 28 mile route and got out the door early.

Eight miles into the ride, on an isolated, beautiful road, after a long downhill, something didn’t feel right. I pulled over and found that my rear tire had lost a significant amount of pressure.

No problem. I always carry a spare tube, as well as a carbon dioxide container to inflate the tube quickly. Indeed, this was the same spare tube I had carried with me for the last five months.

I removed the wheel, took the tire off the rim, examined the tire for thorns or glass, and inspected the rim – all looked fine.

A few minutes later, with the new tube on the rim and the tire remounted, I inflated the tire with the CO² container and was ready to go.

Except I immediately heard “Whoosh!” Air coming out of the tube.

My spare tube had a hole in it.

That spare tube was defective. It had always had a hole in it.

I had carried that tube with me for 1000 miles of biking. I always thought I was prepared, ready for a flat, because I had that tube.

And all along, I wasn’t prepared at all. I was deceived. I had no security. What I thought would help me in an emergency was of no use at all.

So: What do you depend on in an emergency?

Much of what we depend on is like that tube. It looked fine. No defect was apparent. It came from a reliable company. The tube that had lasted a thousand miles was the same brand. Yet in my hour of need, it proved to be worthless.

Just so, our own strength and fortitude will fail us. Other people will fail us. Our philosophies will fail us.

All of us will face trials and tragedies in this life. Eventually, we will all face death. What will you depend on?

As the author of Hebrews assures us,

[God] has said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.” So we can confidently say, “The Lord is my helper; I will not fear; what can man do to me?” (Hebrews 13:5-6)

And the Apostle Paul asks:

Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? . . . No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 8:35, 37-39)

When that same Apostle came to the point of death, knowing that he was soon to be beheaded, he wrote:

The Lord will rescue me from every evil attack and will bring me safely to his heavenly kingdom. To him be glory for ever and ever. Amen. (2 Timothy 4:18)

So once again: What do you depend on?

Don’t depend on a defective tube. Lean instead on the solid rock:

His oath, His covenant, His blood,
Support me in the ‘whelming flood.
When all around my soul gives way,
He then is all my hope and stay.

On Christ the solid rock I stand,
All other ground is sinking sand;
All other ground is sinking sand. (Edward Mote, 1834)