In this life what we fail to sometimes read into a situation properly because we do not think in terms of the overall scheme of things. We only see the now. The present. What appears to be the immediate reality. We have become so rushed and hectic trying to make a deadline or punch a clock, that when we fail to fulfill it, we feel as though we are a complete failure. Keeping up with the neighbors and friends?
This leads me to think of an incident that happened to me many years ago that reminded me that there is always an unseen hand in our lives that is there to guide us around potentially bad situations if we just relax and let it manifest itself.
There is always a good that lurks in an obviously negative situation.
Well, one morning while trying to reach my workplace at warp speed, there was an individual who was driving a really nice looking and obviously new Honda Accord just as fast as I was in the lane right next to me. In the bigger more populated cities up north, this harmless and friendly competition happens frequently on the highway.
It’s not that this individual was racing me, but he was mirroring me for the time that we were on the same stretch of road. He would move into and opening and I would follow and vice versa. It almost felt like a video game. Dipping and dodging in between others who obviously didn’t have to reach a destination quick, fast and in a hurry. At least it took away the some of the stress of being late.
As I gained ground I started to feel as though I had a chance to actually show up for work on time. But that emotion was short lived when I heard a tapping noise in the right side of my car in the area of my front tire. Nooooo! This couldn’t be happening I thought! A NAIL in my tire?
It had to be.
I reasoned that a nail wouldn’t be so bad if it there wasn’t any air coming out of the tire. I would take care of it when I had time later on. Time was my pet peeve because I pride myself on being to an appointment on time. Nice and easy. I like to get up early and enjoy my preparations so that I can be very centered when I arrive.
Not this morning.
We can sometime get too dependent on the electronic means of arising that when a circuit breaker trips in your home during sleep, your alarm clock can be rendered very impotent in waking you up. That is why I am watching the clock in my car as though it’s attached to an explosive! The noise in my tire is really bothering me as it appears to be getting louder or is that my imagination?
The Honda Accord puts some distance between us as he moves away from me. He must be doing at least 95 miles an hour. He’s pushing it in a way that I am not willing to risk. I ask God to protect my tire as I slow down a bit and accept the fact that I just might be late. Not by much. But my perfect attendance record on the job is about to be a thing of the past.
I felt a sense of peace rush over me after saying that prayer under my breath but it didn’t last long because BOOOMMMM!
The loudest noise exploded from the right side of the car while at the same time the very passive steering wheel decided to be rebellious to my directives and have a life of its own. Like a tenant who wants to move out the very day their rent is due, I was in a very bad spot indeed! I felt the adrenalin release within me and I knew now that my well planned day was to be turned upside down and inside out! I swerved a bit but thank God there was no one in the adjacent lane I trespassed into temporarily.
I pulled to the side of the highway.
I took a deep breath and slowly got out of the car to assess the damage that was surely going to take money from me unexpectedly. I guess there goes the trip to the Sushi restaurant this Saturday. Heck, I can still go but I swore up and down that I was going to stick to that “B word” that many people happen to have an issue with…….BUDGET!!!!……(If I may ask, what “B” word did YOU think it was? LOL!)
When I finally laid eyes on my wheel, it was ripped to shreds! I never knew so much rubber was even on a tire in the first place. My thoughts were interrupted when I caught a glimpsed a building that housed some little known local radio station on the other side of the highway, it had the biggest digital clock that seem to mock me by going from 8:59 to 9:00 a.m. right before my very eyes.
What a cruel joke indeed!
Just as soon as I prayed to the Lord and look at what happens. Maybe He wasn’t pleased with me for some past transgression? Surely it was a strong possibility do to the amount of sin and fornication that had so easily come my way in my younger days. Nawww! My God is a very forgiving God. So what was the deal here? I thought to myself “what else could go wrong?”
After putting on that “oh so small” spare tire/donut that comes with most newer modeled cars on in order to carry on, I decided it was time to leave the scene of my unexpected rendezvous. I had never been stared at so hard by people as when I was on the side of that road feeling victimized from the curious gazes of those anonymous strangers.
“Glad to get out of here” I thought. And although traffic started to get a little heavier, I couldn’t have guessed in a million years why it was so. I tried to put on the radio to distract me from the monotony of the now creeping traffic. I was surprised to hear that there was a major traffic accident that just happened about a mile or so right down on the very same highway in front of me! A eighteen wheeler had jumped the divider after losing control and came into the oncoming traffic and crushed a car and the one immediately to the right of it they reported.
GREAT!
Now I am going to have to see someone’s brains splattered all over the road before breakfast. I was very hungry at this point, and really didn’t need to witness that visual.
As the traffic funneled down to one lane, it became apparent that what was described moments earlier on the radio was true. Except that the monotone rapid fire style that the radio broadcaster utilized was quite insufficient to describe the wreckage that was to change how I viewed my life forever. It was like seeing death. It was death. A death that maybe satan had planned for me.
Why do I say this?
Well as I slowly passed by the scene of the mishap, it dawned on me that one of the two cars that was crushed down to the height of a pancake was the Honda Accord that I drove side by side with for miles only about thirty minutes before. The other was someone who darted in and out of traffic with him and rode by his side just as I did earlier.
No more will I ever question a negative happening in my life ever again as I happily thanked my Creator for allowing me the gift and blessing of a blown tire. It saved my life. If I continued to ride along side the Honda Accord………..
……..well let’s just say that God knows EXACTLY what He is doing and is definitely ALWAYS on time!
At times what MAY appear to be a curse in effect is a blessing down the road…….
