Tragedies

 

I have some wood in my back yard saved for a weenie roast someday.  But winter’s over and it’s too warm to burn anything, so I’ll just have to wait until fall.  Saturday I was mowing and moved a piece of wood that had been there a long time.  A whole microcosm of creatures was underneath.  A little brown salamander scurried for cover.  A colony of ants were suddenly uncovered.  Each one grabbed up an egg and began looking for cover.  Rolly Polly bugs ran for the tall grass nearby.  Within a minute, all the creatures that had been living under the log had melted into the safety of nearby cover.  If I could have communicated with them, they would have told me of their terror.  An ant would have said, “A giant tornado ripped off the top of our house, and it was all that I could do to save the children!”  The brown salamander might have said, “I was minding my own business eating lunch when suddenly, my home was gone and the blazing sun was scorching me.  I barely escaped with my life!”  Hey, how do we react to life’s tragedies?  What do we think when our world is disrupted with a hurricane or Covid?  David said in Psalm 27:1, “The LORD is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? the LORD is the strength of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?”  After our initial terror, we should flee to the Lord.  For He ALONE is our strength and refuge.  Hey, trust in God.  He has everything under control, and the Lord will even use tragedies for our benefit and for His glory.  You can count on the good Lord!

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!