Tuesday, February 16, 2016
Invest In Others
One of my favorite questions to ask friends when we are out for coffee or dinner is, "What is God teaching you right now?" I have found that as social media has become popular and texting is the way we converse rather than actually calling (not gonna lie, I don't mind that so much since I hate talking on the phone), it seems my conversations with people are very surfacy. We talk about things we've seen on Facebook, or quotes that are fancy that we read on Twitter, or laugh about YouTube videos that have been shared. Unfortunately those things don't really connect us very deeply. In an effort to get into true relationship with others, and invest in who God has created them to be, I am making it a point to ask deeper questions rather than just have shallow conversation. The other positive that has come from asking the question is that it has forced me to ponder the question for my own life. God is always doing something in my world, but if I am not deliberate about looking for it, I run the risk of missing Him completely. I don't want to miss Him. So, what has God been teaching you lately?
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This reply is going to get pretty long. When I read this at 9am it felt like it already had been a long day.I was up before 6 to take my son to basketball practice. As soon as we hit the road I realized it was extremely icy.As a farmer and township supervisor I am sick and tired of winter...snow is a four letter word.The last several weeks it feels like all I do is move snow and receive complaints about roads and the snow.At 8am 15 minutes after sending my kids off to school I got a call from my brother in law that one of their buses from the neighboring school had gone in the ditch a mile from our place and was wondering if i could help pull it out.I said sure and headed down the road and as I came over the hill there sat the bus dangling in the ditch with one front tire several inches off the ground.A little farther down the road a semi had also slid in and farther yet the county snowplow has slid in. several other semis were backed up waiting for the road to be cleared.Another bus had already picked up the kids and taken off for school but another driver was there to help get the bus out.He didn't want to climb into the bus because of the angle it was sitting at but had to because i couldn't pull it out without him driving.After the bus was out we pulled the semi out and went to see about the county plow.The plow driver said they had another truck coming but we waited to see if they needed help.We waited a while and finally this antique truck comes creeping over the hill.The plow driver said "good they brought the big old monster,after he lays down some sand he'll pop me right out" As the "monster crawled by he hit the banked stretch that wasn't sanded and slid down the banking and tipped over in the ditch. We ran down to see if he was okay and he popped up out the drivers window swearing like a sailor but was not hurt.At that point they decided to call in a big wrecker to pull them both out so we were sent home.When I got home at 9 I sat down to have my morning coffee and read this blog.After all that had happened already today my mind was blank as to what God was teaching me.This afternoon I drove that same stretch of road and the road was perfectly dry and the only sign was a few tracks in the snow. It was then the bus drivers words from earlier hit me"I gotta run we still have 3 kids to pick up"...Only 3 kids? That empty bus I had pulled out had been full of kids on their way to just another day of school when it slid in the ditch.When the driver had climbed in to help get it out of the ditch the first step of the bus was at least waist high on him.I pictured my own preschooler climbing on the bus at our house and how high that first step seems to be for her on level ground.Then I thought of how much higher it was for those kids on that bus and how scared they must have been to climb out.Then it hit me like a hammer how different the outcome would have been if not for the only thing that saved that bus from rolling over down the steep ditch.The very thing I have been complaining about for weeks on end.A ditch filled with it...."SNOW" So what has God taught me today?Be thankful!!!...He is working all around us for good if we just open our eyes. So I can say with a very grateful heart I am thankful for "SNOW"!!! and I sure didn't feel that way when I woke up this morning. Thank you so much for this blog Abbie, I look forward to reading it every day!
ReplyDeleteWow, Mike! Thanks for sharing. What an incredible morning! I'm glad everyone is okay. Thanks so much for reading!!!
DeleteWhat has God been teaching me lately? That's a great question! God has been teaching me how to be a husband. How to be the father He has called me to be to my kids. How to be the friend I have always pretended to be on the surface. Just to name a few. I don't always listen and too often I hear Him and choose to do my own thing anyways😔
ReplyDeleteI hear you, Jason. Christianity is not for sissies. It takes guts to follow Christ and be who he has called us to be. Only a heart transformation makes that possible. Thankfully, Jesus died for us while we were yet sinners, so our choices don't affect his love for us. How gracious and merciful! Thanks for sharing!
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