Jumping On The Bandwagon

Growing up our parents would rein us in by saying “Don’t put the cart in front of the horse.” In other words, don’t be hasty. Another colorful saying used in our household was “jumping on the bandwagon.” This phrase began decades ago when horse-drawn wagons paraded through towns carrying loud brass bands, getting the attention of anyone within earshot. Usually this wagon accompanied political candidates or traveling circuses (now often indistinguishable). We’ve since adapted the phrase to describe someone committing themselves to a cause as if they’d jumped right on that band-wagon of revelry rolling through the streets. I admittedly have a tendency to get overly excited and jump on a bandwagon before the first song is even finished, only later finding out the music was just noise.
     Non-musical wagons and carts are necessary for farm work. A scene etched in my memory is Mom and Aunt Hilda stomping a mammoth-size pile of loose hay atop a precarious old wagon on a hill too steep for the baler. Another time we filled up the tractor wagon with cousins cuddled in blankets and set off like pioneers to find a cave way back on the ridge. And the year of the great harvest we replaced the cousins with hundreds of pumpkins!
      We nearly wore out that old hand-made tractor-wagon getting firewood every spring. In Genesis 22:6-14 young Isaac physically carried the firewood needed for the sacrifice, but in 1 Samuel 6:7-14 God brought the firewood to the people in a cart. It’s a beautiful story about God’s presence returning. The Philistines were instructed to “Get a new cart ready, with two cows that have calved and have never been yoked. Hitch the cows to the cart, but take their calves away and pen them up.”  (Any farmer knows if you take cows that just birthed calves and try to send them away from their babies, they would never go in the opposite direction unless it was by God’s doing.) Next we see the cart carrying the Ark of the Covenant go and stop in the field of Joshua where the people were harvesting. They were overjoyed and quit work to offer up a burnt offering using the cows for a sacrifice and the wooden cart for the firewood. May we likewise glorify God with the gifts He brings us.  
    Then there was the wagon recently used as a prop...As they drove along the winding road to the little church in the valley, Pastor Gary talked with his wife, Rebekah, about the sermon he planned to preach a few days later…he also wished he had a wagon to visually explain the main point of the message.  When they arrived at the church 30 minutes later, there was a wagon!  It was brought by a congregant for another purpose, but it was God who provided. That Sunday Pastor Gary used the wagon to explain the narrow path to life mentioned in Matthew 7:13-14 and how oftentimes we are hauling around things we don’t need…things that weigh us down. But the good news is God will help us get those things out of our wagon if we let him. Sometimes that narrow road also seems to be at an incline and when we have too much “stuff” in our wagon we can begin to back-slide. He wisely cautioned if someone is sliding back farther or faster than we are, we might wrongly feel like we are actually making progress.  We need to be mindful of what’s in our wagon.
     And if you want to know what band-wagon is currently in town, just look at social media and see what new filter people are putting on their profile picture. All band-wagons are fun and loud, but we might not want to put the cart before the horse. Let the song play out and ask ourselves if it’s music to God’s ears before we jump on.

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