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!