The bus I
am driving now has logged over 200,000 miles. It is road worthy just well
broken in and like those who are hard of hearing very loud. It squeaks and
creaks in addition to no overdrive so the engine is winding up pretty good
going down the road. Add to that the noise of 50 children most of them
elementary age and a business band radio, now you can “hear” what I mean. On
top of that, as a safety device all of the emergency windows and hatches have a
buzzer to indicate they are open. Well there are four emergency windows and two
roof hatches and the buzzer for all of them is the same. When it begins to howl
you have to see a hatch open or inspect each until you find the culprit. As of
late a bump will set the buzzer off for a little while and then mysteriously it
stops.
I have
repeatedly opened and closed all of the windows and hatches to fix the
offending switch but to no avail. It still goes off without an opening. Now the
mystery is how long it will sound. Sometimes another bump stops it sometimes it
just stops on its own. I really don’t know and I am beginning to trust that it
will stop on its own. It’s not an emergency, I just have to wait on another
bump in the road or maybe not.
I think I
learned this (about emergencies) with my first automobiles. My first and
seconds cars were MG’s. Those are high maintenance English cars with
notoriously faulty electrical systems (they say that’s why the English drink
warm beer because they have Lucas refrigerators (Lucas made the electrical
system found in my cars)). They were also old when I purchased them. Both came
with spare parts and the second (which I still have) came from a junk yard. I
quickly learned to put up with switches that failed to work; every failure was
not a catastrophe or an emergency. The reason is many times after a bit it
would go to working again and be fine. Odd that that happened but true, I do
not know why they quit or why they went to working again. I just know they did.
Most things are like that.
In our
media today any event is huge when it breaks. Every story is the biggest thing
until the next one comes along. Just as quickly as the first appeared it has
disappeared. What initially seemed so big turns out to be not-so-large. This is
so in our personal lives as well. Relationships hit bumps in the road, moments
or items that hinder our relationship and one party or both consider it a make
or break issue. In reality 90% of those “deal breakers” are not deal breakers
at all and not really worth mentioning. We need to choose our battles better.
That is what sets apart the best military minds. A great strategist fights the
deal breakers not every skirmish. They pick their battles, time, place and
tactics leaving nothing to the enemy. They consider the cost and determine if
this is really worth going to the wall over. Our relationships could use a
similar thought process. When all is said and done and more than emotion is
considered then this great issue is nothing but a bump in the road. Yes, it
needs to be dealt with in an appropriate manner but it is a bump and not a mountain.
If we are not careful we can make a cliff out of a bump. Life is like that more
than we realize.
The
biggest, most important things appear as almost nothing and the least of things
appear as mountains. The wisdom is to know the difference and respond
accordingly. Other peoples’ emergencies don’t have to be yours. Consider who
goes before a believer and who comes behind, Jesus! Jesus said of himself,
“I am the way and the truth and the life.
No one comes to the Father
except through me.” John 14:6 NIV 1984
What can
come against you that is not just a bump in the road? Who holds your future in
his hand?
See,
whatever seems so big it’s just a bump in the road.
In His
Service and Yours
The Rev
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