River Rat reached the end of his patience and the last usable drop of diesel in his 18-wheeler. River Rat was the CB radio “handle” used by truck driver, J.W. Edwards in 1973. The first ever U.S. oil embargo was in full swing. It was creating harsh, unjust hardships on truckers delivering goods and the preponderance of groceries across the nation. Gas was being rationed and fuel nearly doubled in cost almost overnight while freight rates remained constant. Government was long… on promised relief but short on delivery. Truckers began talking about being short on their deliveries and staging a protest in Washington DC.

As River Rat’s big rig coughed to a stop, he thought, “why not now?” Rather than turning into the emergency stop lane, he just let the rig coast in the active lane until it would move no more. He reached for his CB microphone and started talking to others truckers about his action. Soon another big rig pulled to a stop next to him and Interstate 80 was shut down. Word spread over CB channel 19 from one trucker to another all across the nation in a matter of hours. The 1973 Truckers’ Interstate Shutdown was born when one trucker picked his CB microphone and started talking.
The CB was the forerunner to modern social media and proved a powerful means for getting a trucker’s message out even though its range is line of sight. Messages had to be passed along down the line of sight.

Consider the potential impact of modern media available to ordinary people. We are not limited to line of sight transmissions. One voice can reach around the world in moments. That’s powerful!
The available media is powerful but the message Christians have to share is more powerful. That’s why Satan goes to the extremes he does to silence the Gospel message. What if we spent less time talking about shopping trips and fishing and gave more space to telling the world that Jesus died to save sinners like us? Tell the world about Jesus’s love and show it.