Backseat Driver – TobyMac feat Hollyn and TRU

 

Ever since TobyMac’s new album has come out, I’ve basically been listening to nothing else. It’s easy for me to say that I instantly fell in love with all of the songs on this record, but today I really deeply listened to Backseat Driver, featuring Hollyn and TRU. I’ve seen both TobyMac and Hollyn in concert and I love their music. But today this song really stuck out to me and how really centers on the idea of full surrender, an idea that has been passing through my head for the past few weeks.

I fairly recently got my driver’s license; in May I will have had it for a year. Still, everyday, I always get in my car and wonder who decided to let little young baby me be in control of a car. Then I remember that I’m not a baby anymore and the responsibilities of the world are just beginning. I drive now. I have a job. I’m looking seriously at colleges. I’m deciding what my senior year will look like and the college years after that. It’s all happening now, and I really don’t want it to, because I know it will be hard.

Also, I’ve decided I hate driving. Driving is boring. When you have your permit, you must have someone in the car. You’re never alone and always have someone to talk to. But now with as much driving as I do with my license, I get really tired of talking to myself, then I endlessly sing show tunes, or blast classical music, or 80’s, or jazz, or Disney, or this weird “African Sounds” cd that I have that’s basically wind and crickets. I get really bored on my own in the car. Driving is scary. Just on the short drive home from school today, there were four people who made stupid decisions around me and I used my horn three of those times. It’s also the first time I’ve used my horn, so I was frightened.

But I was thinking today, while listening to this song, about really giving up the wheel.I can’t imagine while I was driving, just fully letting go of the wheel. But does that show my commitment in faith? Now I know that I will never actually ever let go of the steering wheel and watch and see what happens, but I know for a fact, in my faith, I do have hesitations.

What I really love about this song is how I feel it connects so well to me. Personally, in my faith I know I do trust Him. In the analogy of driving a car, God is definitely behind the wheel, to which I am very grateful. However, this song brings up the idea of a backseat driver: Definition: 1. “a passenger in a car who gives the driver unwanted advice” 2. “a person who is eager to advise without responsibility.” So, we may not be driving, but are we in life sometimes telling God what we want, giving unwanted advise. I love this: “eager to advise without responsibility”.  When we decide to give our life to Christ, we give Him responsibility in our lives. We surrender and ask God to take the wheel. But, living as Christians, there are often times in our lives where we still try to be in control.

The words of this chorus just really accentuate the level of surrender that is happening in this song. This is from the place of someone who has committed to Christ, but still yearns for more. They have this feeling of longing, thirst, for God. It’s so hard sometimes to admit that there is still more you can do with your walk with God because it’s easy to love Jesus, pray, read, and call it a day. But I know that there can be so much more to life and I know that God has great plans and a lot of amazing things planned for us. What would it look like if we all honestly felt and followed the message of this song? What would our lives look like? What about our futures? As I’m growing up and addressing the future, it’s so easy for me to become the backseat driver and puts in my thoughts of what I want for my future, when God has even better plans for me.

What areas of your life are you giving God unwanted advise? Listen to this song, and then talk with Him on where your voice is becoming louder to you than Gods, and then try to hear Him. I pray and know that He will show up and take you on an amazing journey.

 

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