Toppled, (Nearly)

Quite some time ago, I witnessed an interesting event.  I had left my job at noon and drove into the nearby town to grab some lunch.  I brought a friend with me and we went to a little sandwich shop.  We ordered and picked up our sandwiches then headed back to work.  The sandwich shop was on a short side street which connected a main road to another main road in a triangle fashion.  I pulled out of the sandwich shop and turned left onto the short side street.  When I came to the main road, there was a stop sign where I had to take a right turn at a very sharp angle.

As I drove away, I looked into my rearview mirror. I noticed a Mustang convertible coming up to the same intersection from the side road in the same manner.  On the main road there was a Land Rover headed in the opposite direction from me and toward the intersection I had just left.  What happened next was amazing.  The man in the Mustang came to a stop at the intersection and whipped his head back and forth looking left and right to see if there was any traffic coming before turning left.  Simultaneously, a lady in the Land Rover approached the intersection from the man’s right.  She signaled to take the turn, slowed and proceeded to turn onto the short side street.  Somehow, the driver of the Mustang didn’t see this vehicle directly in front of him.  He stepped on the gas just as the lady had turned in front of him.

The front bumper of the driver’s side of his car tagged the driver’s side rear of the Land Rover.  The Land Rover went onto two wheels and nearly rolled over.  The lady driving somehow manipulated the vehicle so that it landed back on its 4 wheels.  Wow!  As I watched this unfold in my rearview mirror my jaw dropped.  How could the man not have seen the Land Rover?  How did the lady keep the vehicle from flipping over?

Photo from MotorAuthority.com

Sometimes we overlook the obvious things in our lives.  We are looking so far down the road at what might be coming, that we don’t see what is directly in front us.  Jesus said, and I’ll paraphrase, don’t worry about things of tomorrow, but focus on the things of today.

In our modern world, we, literally, have so much information available at our fingertips, that our minds can easily project happenings that will never happen.  Our ability to speculate starts to run down rabbit trails and can cause us undue stress.

We need to be deliberate in grounding ourselves in reality. 

As I write this I am on a flight.  Flights are humbling, because we are placing our trust in the pilots and mechanics of the aircraft.  God wants us to do the same with Him in every aspect of our lives.  When we read what the apostles said about Jesus and how He was perfectly placing His trust in the Father, it is indeed humbling.  How can we as mere humans achieve this?   We can’t.  We need supernatural help.  But even then, our own natures tend to foul things up. 

I love the story of Peter walking on water.  He was a mere human, but he did what the Messiah did, at least for a brief moment.  He emptied himself of doubt and trusted Jesus to give him the same power that Jesus had.  For a brief moment he was focused entirely on that thing that Jesus called him to do.  But then his focus on what could happen caused him to sink.  [Matthew 14:22-33]  

If we want to be blessed by God, we need to pay attention to the things that He calls us to do today.  Certainly, we’re to plan for future events, appointments, etc., but our focus should be on the here and now; ready to step into action for the Lord.