Emergency

I had a rough evening Friday, but a worse morning Saturday.  I was working on the church kitchen drain late Friday evening and realized that I needed a few extra fittings before Lowe’s closed at 10 pm.  But when I got there, they had closed at 9 pm.  Bummer.  So, I got up early Saturday to be at Lowe’s when they opened at 6 am.  But as I rounded the corner in our sub-division, I saw emergency lights flashing.  Two police cars, a fire truck, and an ambulance were blocking the road.  I pulled up, but a cranky fireman told me to back up.  “This is an emergency area!” he warned.  I backed up, turned my headlights off, and sat there for a few minutes.  There was a back way out of the subdivision, but it would take ten minutes longer.  Didn’t they understand?!  I needed to get through!  I had to get to Lowe’s!  Why hadn’t they parked on one side of the road?  Why did they have to block the whole road?  Just then I saw a paramedic come out of the neighbor’s house carefully carrying a rolled-up blanket about the size of a baby.  In a moment, my emergency was no longer an emergency.  My neighbors had a REAL emergency - I only THOUGHT that I had an emergency.  I turned my van around, no longer in a hurry, and prayed for the neighbors as I drove to Lowe’s.  Proverbs 21:2, “Every way of a man is right in his own eyes: but the LORD pondereth the hearts.”