Taken from Daily Wisdom, a newsletter I get.
Jacob managed to make himself look like a decent businessman in the
time he was allotted that morning, though his shave was a bit spotty.
At least he hadn't cut himself, he thought, trying to look on the
bright side of a day that was beginning to look like one of his worst
ever. The clock had been set for p.m., not a.m., so he had gotten a
little more rest, though he lamented the fact that extra sleep had to
come at the expense of a timely arrival at the office. In addition to
waking up late, there were several other events that seemed to
purposely delay his exit from his second-floor apartment.
The predominant thought in Jacob's mind that morning was "why me?" He
often thought "why me?" and sometimes, when alone, would say it aloud
as he experienced some setback, some annoyance that kept his plans from
succeeding as he had hoped: "why me?" when the hot water was out, "why
me?" when the car needed repairs. He felt at times as if his life was
nothing but a chain of "why me?" incidents.
As Jacob pulled his car out of the apartment complex that morning it
looked as if he would make it to the office with a few minutes to spare
before the 10 o'clock meeting. But, as he came to the intersection
where he normally turned left, he saw flashing lights and a policeman
directing traffic up ahead. He moaned. He looked at his watch a number
of times as he, along with the cars in front of and behind his, inched
towards the intersection, wondering what idiot had caused this next in
a seemingly endless series of delays. What he saw at the intersection
jolted him from his thought pattern.
There was blood and glass all over the street. Two vehicles, a silver
minivan and a blue pick-up truck, stood in the intersection, bearing
the marks of an earlier collision. The truck had broadsided the
minivan, striking it in the passenger's side at a great rate of speed,
and neither vehicle looked like it would ever roll again. Jacob could
see a human figure, shrouded in a white sheet on the paramedics'
gurney, waiting to be loaded into the parked ambulance.
Jacob had seen the minivan before. It traveled the same route he did
to work, and he occasionally drove behind it or in front of it when he
left for work at his normal time. His heartbeat quickened as he
realized that the victim of the fatal collision that morning could
have been him, if only he hadn't overslept.
Some would have us believe that the world is just a random series of
events and we, as the result of eons of mindless processes are merely
riding the crest of that random wave. But circumstances often hint
otherwise. The hints are sometimes subtle, sometimes glaringly obvious.
They would lead us to a very different conclusion about this world and
this life. "There is meaning here," the events whisper. "Go and find
it."
Contributed by Stephen F. Pizzini (spizzini@hotmail.com)
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Chose you this day whom you will serve,
as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.
Joshua 24:15
What is popular is not always right.
What is right is not always popular.
