In 2021, someone pulled out in front of me. I T-Boned them while going nearly 50 mph. At the last micro-second, I piled on the brakes with my right foot and braced for impact with my left. Seconds later, I was dead stopped, and with my airbag deployed, I forced my driver’s side door open and crawled out. Both cars are totaled, and we are blocking an important rural intersection.
Had I been in my big truck, there’s no telling what the damage to the other would have been.
I’m sore, in shock, and wondering what to do next.
I call my bride. We lived just a mile away. She came down and took over for me because I felt overly tired at the moment, aching, and I could not think straight. Shock. Twinges. Aches. Oh, no!
Since that day, I’ve been dealing with ongoing issues with my lower back. X-rays, MRIs, Doctors, Physical Therapy, and finally, spine and muscle manipulation by a good chiropractic healer. The shock may be gone, but I always feel discomfort in my lower back. Twinges at the weirdest time but aches all the time.
This Is Life
Welcome to my new life. Activity is minimized. Walking long distances is impossible. It was months before I could sit in my truck seat for more than 20 minutes without my sciatica forcing me to pull over to the side of the road before I created new problems!
This accident has forced me to rethink the future.
Suddenly, a heating pad becomes my friend – and you know how much I hate the heat! My bride’s replacement vehicle (F-150) had heated and cooling seats, so when we go anywhere at length, I want to take her new truck.
Walking the yard at night is precarious. All it takes is a wrong step, and I’m in sudden pain. Use a light? That destroys my night vision!
Okay. Enough. Get out of the blues, and let’s apply this thought differently. Why? That’s what I do. Take a situation from life and look at it from a different perspective. Recreate an attitude about the moment, and continue climbing life’s aging ladder.
Here’s My Thought
There’s probably a legal or medical term dealing with this issue. But it’s the same thing we face when challenges show up: a family issue, emotional challenge, career crisis, or spiritual slump. Shock sets us on our heels. We ache at the moment and carry the wounds with us as we continue to age.
I’m dealing with some family stuff that produces an emotional hurdle,
and it’s a crisis that slumps my energy, and it’s all rolled into one moment of time.
I’m forced to do nothing because nothing is wanted of me.
Time heals all wounds, or at least the saying goes, but as with my back, there will probably be shocks, twinges, and aches that will stay with me for a long time.
Add to the mix. Why not?!!?
I’m struggling with the aftershock of a pandemic. I’ve pushed through the past 30+ months of agonized forward-leaning motion, and when it’s time for life to settle down into a familiar stride, it isn’t easy to see through the fog and find solid ground.
Compare Yourself To A Biblical Story
If you are any student of the Bible, then you have a favorite story or two. Pick one. Line yourself up to the example and see where you line up.
My mind goes to Joseph. You know, the favored son with a coat of many colors. God had chosen him for a remarkable future, but he did not realize all the challenges he would face. Except for this:
He always seemed to have the best attitude facing his greatest challenge.
His brothers are jealous of him because of his dreams and visions. They sell him into slavery. Joseph ends up imprisoned in the future as a slave/servant but finds favor and is rewarded with new benefits. Lies are told, and he’s back in prison. He reveals the answer to a dream; one man finds happiness, and the other does not survive. “Remember me in your good times.” But he’s forgotten.
How do you deal with this constant up-and-down life?
Finally, he unfolds a kingly vision and is set at the next highest position in all the land to manage a nation’s future ups and downs.
Is It Over?
The story is not over until God says it’s over!
Eventually, his family comes looking for food during the coming famine. He’s reunited, though they no longer recognize him. He’s become a foreigner to them. They thought he was gone, history. And no longer in their zone of influence.
Time for revenge, right? Not Joseph.
Joseph reveals himself, and they find he’s the same personality as in his younger years. He is still favored by the man with the authority of the house.
But Joseph understands the bigger picture.
For these two years the famine has been in the land, and there are still five years in which there will be neither plowing nor harvesting. And God sent me before you to preserve a posterity for you in the earth, and to save your lives by a great deliverance. So now it was not you who sent me here, but God; and He has made me a father to Pharaoh, and lord of all his house, and a ruler throughout all the land of Egypt.
(Genesis 45:6-8 NKJV)
Here’s My Thought
Maybe we’ll never understand the victory of our challenging life until we reach the end of the story. We can either be constantly negative about life’s challenges, or we should change our focus and let God handle the ending that is sure to be better than our beginning.
Imagine life in the times of slavery here in the USA. A boy is born to a slave and a free woman. His mom dies while he’s young, and his aunt raises him so he can keep his freedom. Unschooled but well-educated, he becomes a preacher and songwriter. From his list of songs comes one of my all-time favorites.
When The Morning Comes
1 Trials dark on ev’ry hand, and we cannot understand
All the ways that God would lead us to that blessed Promised Land;
But He’ll guide us with His eye, and we’ll follow till we die;
We will understand it better by and by.
Chorus:
By and by, when the morning comes, When the saints of God are gathered home,
We will tell the story how we’ve overcome; We will understand it better by and by.
2 Oft our cherished plans have failed, disappointments have prevailed,
And we’ve wandered in the darkness, heavyhearted and alone;
But we’re trusting in the Lord, and according to His Word,
We will understand it better by and by. [Chorus]
3 Temptations, hidden snares often take us unawares,
And our hearts are made to bleed for some thoughtless word or deed,
And we wonder why the test when we try to do our best,
But we’ll understand it better by and by. [Chorus]