Your Last Load

Oftentimes truck drivers will have painted on the back of their tractor cabs a word, phrase or other short message. On the back of one tractor I saw painted, "Just one more load, and then I'll rest ...". The phrase seemed haunting.

Truck drivers know about loads. "Loads", the transportation of freight, are the very reason for our occupation. If you reflect even for a moment, then you know that some day you will haul your last load. Which load will be your last? Is it the load you are hauling right now? Will it be a load you will pull ten years from now? We don't know. God knows.

Truck drivers also know about appointments. Appointments are set delivery and pick up times. Sometimes appointments are changed. Sometimes they are cancelled. Sometimes, due to dispatch error, traffic, mechanical failure, weather or the like we are late for our appointments. But there is one appointment we will all keep - we will not be late for that appointment:

"And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment."

That verse is found in the New Testament book of Hebrews in Chapter 9, verse 27.

We also know that shippers have different requirements at appointments. Some shippers want the trailer swept, the tandem axles slid back and the doors opened. Some shippers may inspect the trailer. Some shippers may specify a given type of equipment for the load. If the requirements are not met the driver may find himself rejected at the shipper. No one wants to be rejected, but it is not a life or death matter. There will be other loads.

Did you know that God has certain "shipping requirements"? In Matthew, chapter 25, we read:

"When the Son of man shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory:
And before him shall be gathered all nations: and he shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats:
And he shall set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on the left.
Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world:

...

Then shall he say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels:

...

And these shall go away into everlasting punishment: but the righteous into life eternal.

It goes without saying that this is a very, very serious appointment. Clearly, we want to meet the requirements of this Shipper. Failure to meet these requirements will have everlasting consequences.