Almost a train wreck!*

Once as a young driver, in my 1967 Convertible Mustang, my mind was doing what teens with undiagnosed ADHD do, it was all over the place. I was in traffic and late to something I should have left 15 minutes earlier for, but because I thought I owned the road, I had no doubt I could outsmart any traffic. I quickly made a decision to take an alternative route, thinking it would be faster. But, NOPE! There was actually more traffic on this street. Eager to make it through the next stop light, I didn’t notice the rather large sign that said, “Danger, Do Not Stop on Tracks!”  So, of course, the light turned yellow and I was shouting at the cars in front of me to keep going through the intersection, however, those drivers were also stuck in traffic.  So, there I was, front tires on one side of the tracks and back tires on the other. Then, it was like a movie… the lights began flashing, the safety arms came down and there I was right in the middle of the rails. I looked to my right and there was the train headed toward me. The train horn blared and I panicked. As the train approached, I had no place to go, forward or reverse in the bumper to bumper traffic.  The safety arms in front and back seemed to hold me in place as the metal serpent slowly slithered toward me.  Fortunately, it was not a speeding train, or I would not be here to tell you this story. It was a slow moving train, but moving it was. Each yard it came closer, I was imagining my life as a slow motion train wreck… being folded into my convertible like a metal taco. At the last moment inching forward and backward I was able to drive off the tracks just enough to not be hit by the train. The train operator was none too happy with me, blaring the horn as the 1000 tons of steel missed my little car by inches. So, I finally arrived at my destination with no blood in my face, humiliated, late, and shaky. 

King Solomon sharing his divinely gifted wisdom says, “Before destruction a man’s heart is haughty, but humility comes before honor.”(Proverbs 18:12 ESV) God has always been faithful to humble me when my arrogance begins to rise. Though often it involves devastating embarrassment and sometimes bodily injury, I am grateful, because it at least slows me down from running headlong into destruction and it shows me how much He loves me. The writer of Hebrews says this, “And you have forgotten that word of encouragement that addresses you as sons: “My son, do not make light of the Lord’s discipline, and do not lose heart when he rebukes you, because the Lord disciplines those he loves, and he punishes everyone he accepts as a son.”(Hebrews 12:5-6 NIV-GK) We can be thankful when we are headed for a train wreck and God humbles us and takes us off the tracks. 

Hang in there people! God is glad to be with us! I’m praying for us all. 

What Will You Harvest?*

My mother thought it would be a good idea to give my sister and me some diverse and character building experiences in our early teen years, so she worked it out with a family friend who had just bought a tomato farm for us to help with the harvest. The farm was in Walland, TN between Pigeon Forge and Maryville (pronounced “Murvul” by the locals). The tomatoes were headed for the cannery so we had to pick them when they were just starting to ripen, so they could continue to ripen on the truck and not spoil before they got there. The owner said, "turn the green tomato over before picking it and see if there is a red/pink star on the bottom.” This seemed easy enough to me. So, I was assigned a row and given a 5 gallon bucket to fill just like the 20 or so other migrant pickers. When the bucket was full, a runner would come down my row, pick it up and take it to the truck. By the way, I was much slower than the migrant workers who were experts and very fast. There were about 20 Hispanic workers who lived in one mobile home on the farm for the harvest season, before they would move on to live at the next farm to pick another crop. They were very hard workers and they were very kind to me and my sister.  They shared their homemade burritos with us at lunch time, They were so spicy and hot that they chuckled at us gringos when we asked for water (!Agua, Por favor!).  As we were picking, the owner said, “who is picking the green tomatoes? I thought this was funny, because they all looked green to me except for the red/pink star on the bottom. Well, they followed the buckets back the next round and identified me as the “green picker,” because all my stars were green, not red. It was at that moment I realized that I was red/green color blind. Guess who became the bucket carrier? Yep, the harvesters would yell, “bucket!” and I would run down the row with an empty bucket and exchange it for the full one, which I took to the tractor trailer truck and handed it up to the one who poured them gently in. The days were hot, so after a day of picking we would go to the cold mountain water of Walland Creek nearby to cool off before heading home to eat, sleep and do it again the next day. After a some days of bucket carrying, the owner decided it was a better idea to send me and my sister to the  farmers market to generate another income stream by selling the tomatoes too ripe for the truck. I think the real reason was because about 10 more workers had arrived from another farm and we were picking much too slowly and hindering the operation. 

 

The Apostle Paul encouraged the early church to keep going, keep picking good things to do and choosing to live right so they could enjoy a harvest of real life and true blessings from God. He says to the Galatian church, “Don’t be misled—you cannot mock the justice of God. You will always harvest what you plant. Those who live only to satisfy their own sinful nature will harvest decay and death from that sinful nature. But those who live to please the Spirit will harvest everlasting life from the Spirit. So let’s not get tired of doing what is good. At just the right time we will reap a harvest of blessing if we don’t give up.” (Galatians 6:7-9 NLT)  It is our connection with the Spirit of God that changes who we are and how we live, so we can enjoy the blessings that come from those changes. 

 

Hang in there people! God is glad to be with us! I’m praying for us all!