Thursday, July 22, 2010

The Dangers of Taking a Wrong Turn

We have church on Wednesday nights. Before church, our kids do some Mixed Martial Arts for about an hour at the church, so we usually sit around and talk or go and get some coffee. Last night we decided to go and get some coffee. I was dragging a bit. Caffeine sounded good.
 
To find our coffee, we went to St. Arbucks, (saw Pastor Pat) and went on our way back to the church. OK, we had a pit stop on the way back at the Auburn Donut and Muffin factory, but it was closed, so I didn't get a donut, so there. Well, as it turned out, we were in Downtown Auburn, and were trying to get back to church, and the barriers were down at the Train Crossings. It was rather odd, because there weren't any trains coming, but the barriers were down.
 
As we sat in line, there were a few people that went through the crossings even though the barriers were down, but we weren't going to do that, so we decided to find another way around the tracks that went over, not through. We found our way over the C street bridge, got on Highway 18, and merged onto Highway 167 to make our way back to the church.
 
And then it happened. Out of no where, with no big trucks in sight, with no one in front of us..... CRACK! A rock hit our windshield and immediately made a spider crack about the size of a silver dollar.
 
It was sweet. After the rock hit and made the spider, we were about 3 mins from church and the cracks began to grow and grow. By the time we got to church the cracks were inches long.  Its clear that we're going to need a new windshield.
 
Of course my immediate thought was that we should have stayed in the line for the railroad crossing and just waited it out. If we had done that, we wouldn't have got on the freeway, we wouldn't have hit the rock, and we wouldn't have to worry about buying the new windshield.
 
Some people might say that God was trying to teach me a lesson. Others may say that I learned something about patience. Here's the bottom line- you can deduce whatever you want about the why, but here's what happened- I was on the freeway and rock hit my windshield and its annoying.
 
Here's the deal- sometimes things just happen. Sometimes you're just in the wrong place at the wrong time. There is no rhyme or reason, its just two points connecting at the wrong time. Such was the case last night on Highway 167 in Auburn Washington. My truck was in the wrong place at the wrong time. 3 seconds earlier or later, and I wouldn't be out a windshield.
 
What's the nugget for the day? I love the Lord. I believe in his sovereignty, but it frustrates me that people try to put every last thing in the world back on God.  I have a difficult time believing that the Lord was in the throne room last night, and looked down on me and decided to have some fun with a rock and my windshield. Sure, its possible, but I don't think so. More than likely it was the choice that I made to buy and have a car, drive on a highway, go get coffee, etc. that put me in that place at that time.  I can learn something from it and God can teach me something through it, but Hedidn't chuck a rock in my windshield to teach me something.
 
Think about your own life, is there something that is more coincidental than you think? Are you giving in to thinking that the benign things of your life are cosmic interactions? Realize that God set up this world in a way that things happen, they are sometimes just that- things. You can learn something from them, but God may not be doing them to you. He is God and He is Lord, but we make choices every day that we have to live with. We can learn from them, but they may not necessarily be God doing them to us.
 
Be blessed
matt

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