Rules Followers

 

Are you a rule-follower?  I am.  I get right in line at McDonald’s.  I dutifully put my shopping cart where it belongs at Costco instead of leaving it between the cars.  Half of the world follows the rules while the other half thinks that the rules don’t apply to them.  They think that rules are just suggestions - guidelines to follow - if you can.  So, in Ringgold, at the intersection of Boynton Drive and Hoover Road, Hoover comes in at an angle.  So, the big white line to stop at on Hoover is set way back so that cars turning left off Boynton onto Hoover can make the sharp left turn.  But the non-rules-followers always pull out a full car-length PAST the big white line and stick their noses out making it hard for people (like me) to negotiate the sharp left turn.  I go that way every day, and I am always frustrated with the non-rules-followers.  However, today, I was coming back from the lumber yard and for the first time, I was on Hoover Rd. turning right.  But when I pulled up to the big white line, bushes blocked my view of oncoming traffic on Boynton.  So I had to nose out a full car-length in order to see to the right around the bushes.  Then a truck came around making a left turn onto Hoover (like I always do) with the driver scowling at me sticking out past the big white line.  The tables were turned!  Now I know why the drivers nose out on Hoover Rd.  Many are just like me - rules followers - WHO JUST CAN’T SEE PAST THE BUSHES.  Hey, we need to have compassion for other people.  We need not to judge unless we have been in their situation.  Solomon said in Proverbs 21:2, “Every way of a man is right in his own eyes: but the LORD pondereth the hearts.”  We all think that we are right.  But we should try have God’s compassion and see things through the eyes of other people.  Before we criticize someone today, let’s look at the situation from their perspective, and then have God’s compassion.

In a Hurry

 

About six years ago, I had finished putting shelves in my daughter’s new house.  It was early afternoon and thunder from a developing storm was rolling getting closer and closer, so I had to hurry.  The back of my pick-up truck is open, and I had several pieces of trim to take back to Lowe’s and Home Depot.  I stacked my tools in the truckbed first and then the trim so that I could get the trim out quicker.  And I was off in a speeding cloud of dust.  I stayed behind a fast car and kept one eye out for the cops and the other eye on the darkening sky.  After I stopped at Home Depot, I swung by Lowe’s.  The growing storm was to the west and home was east.  “I just might make it,” I thought.  But when I pulled onto the four-lane highway, I heard a siren.  Just ahead on the other side of the road, I saw blue lights flashing and yellow lights flashing at an accident just as a firetruck sped past me.  In a moment I saw a smashed car in the median, with a heavily damaged work truck off on the shoulder.  An ambulance was parked between them taking care of the injured.  As I looked at the work truck, I realized that I was driving a work truck.  I had missed the accident by no more than a couple of minutes.  In my hurry to miss the rain I had compromised safe driving.  The seriousness of that accident sank into me.  I thought, “If I’m not careful, I could really hurt someone (or myself) with my careless driving.”  As I left the area, I slowed down.  So what if a few tools get wet?  Isn’t someone’s life more important?  Hey, how often do we take the next moment for granted?  Our life is so brief!  David said in Psalm 90:9,12, “… we spend our years as a tale that is told. So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom.”  We should use each day as a gift from the good Lord because each day IS a gift from the good Lord.  Hey, be careful out there.  Don’t take chances on the highways.  And don’t take chances with your life.  Invest your life into something that will outlive yourself.  Don’t waste your life; use it for God’s glory!

Mueller Iron Foundry

 

In 1972 I began working at Mueller Iron Foundry in Chattanooga.  It was hot and heavy work, but it paid well.  Mueller made cast iron fire hydrants on a huge machine.  It took a crew of twenty workers to keep the MoldMaster running.  The MoldMaster had thirty or so huge steel molds that held compacted sand in the shape of fire hydrants on the inside.  There was an overhead monorail system that carried one-ton ladles with liquid iron to pour into the molds.  The iron was at about 2800°F and would splash just like water … only at a searing temperature.  When I poured the iron, I had a whole array of safety equipment to wear.  I had steel-toed shoes with rubber spats over the laces.  I had thick leather gloves with dark-tinted safety glasses.  A shield kept the heat off my face, and a hard hat kept the splattering iron off my hair.  I wore two long-sleeved shirts and two pair of jeans just to keep the heat at bay.  Most of the men word bibbed overalls, and one afternoon I found out why.  I was pouring iron when a splash of liquid iron bounced off my hat and went down the back of my shirt collar.  I wriggled my shoulders and the iron rolled down my back, but stopped at my belt.  I scrambled, ripping off my belt and pulling off my pants, but it was too late.  The iron had burned right into my skin.  I went to the infirmary where the nurse took out the piece of iron that was the size of a BB.  Over the next week, the cooked flesh around the area left a scar about the size of a dime.  I had to work to keep it clean.  I still have a tiny scar on my back-left side at my waistline.  Hey, if you haven’t trusted Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, you will burn in hell someday.  If that little burn hurt me so much, imagine how painful hell will be FOR ETERNITY!  I hate to be the one to tell you of hell, but I am warning you as a friend.  God doesn’t hate sinners; God just hates sin.  And a burning hell demonstrates how much God hates sin.  But God loves sinners so much that He gave His only Son to die in your place.  God has done everything that He can to rescue you from hell, but the choice is up to you.  Paul said in Romans 6:23, “For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.”  Accept Jesus while you can.  Make no mistake, hell is hot.