Yesterday I was in Brentwood for the afternoon hanging out with my good friend, Erik. He had ridden with me to REI to pick up a couple of things, and a couple miles away from the parking lot, the heavens opened up and rain fell too hard to see the road or anything else for that matter. The rain slowed down and by the time I was driving back it had stopped completely. Less than a mile from Erik’s house we got stuck in a long line of traffic on a small two-lane road. As we sat in the line, every car in front of us was turning around and driving the opposite direction. We both wanted to see what was going on, and stuck it out til we got to the scene. The car in front of me was a relatively new Escalade SUV, which sat smashed under a huge oak tree that had fallen, crushing a sedan on the opposite side of the street. I put my truck in park and got out, wanting to see how I could help. The vehicles were empty, and I still don’t know who the owners were. As I walked up to the scene, a man wielding a chainsaw was cutting the tree in half, and as he finished, me and 3 other men moved in to push this beast of a log off the car. At this point, the adrenaline was pumping and I’m fairly sure I could have lifted the tree off myself and thrown it half a mile down the road, then thrown on my red cape and flown off to save the next person in danger. I’d just like to add that the 3 men pushing the tree with me were Hispanic workers who had gotten to the scene just before I had in a landscaping truck that was now off-road. 5 or 6 white men in polo shirts and khakis stood and watched. I’m not making assumptions and I’m not judging; I will let the scene speak for itself and let you draw your own conclusions. We were able to push the tree off the car and then off the road. As we gave it one last heave-ho into the embankment, I am feeling like a hero. I look over and see the next target: the sedan, still under the first half of the Oak. As I walk over to it, I look down to see my two open palms covered in blood. Additionally, I’ve got beads of blood running down my wrists, and as I tilt my hands into the light, they glisten like hundreds of little Christmas lights embedded in my skin. It took about five seconds to realize that the tree had not just crushed the SUV’s body and hood, but had shattered the windshield, planting thousands on tiny shards into the bark, which now are sticking in my hands. Not wanting to add drama to an already bad situation, I quietly walked towards my car and motioned for Erik. I discreetly showed him my bloody hands and told him to grab my keys and get us to his house. We were able to cut through some yards and get around the scene, so it only took a few minutes before I was walking in his kitchen and beginning the process of picking out shards of glass from my palms, cleaning the cuts and bandaging up my torn hands.
I’m fine. None of the cuts were big, and no infection seems to be eminent. So now I’m left with a pretty cool story to tell, but more importantly, a really crucial lesson. While it is admirable to stop everything you’re doing and jump in to help your distressed neighbor, it’s got to be approached with some caution. Had I stopped for just a minute and thought about the situation I would have realized that glass was destined to be covering the area. Adding insult to injury, I had not one, but two pair of gloves in my truck. : ) Oh well!
I realize God was teaching me a lesson for my WR journey. I see now that I am going to have to approach the situations we run into this next year with adrenaline rolling, but a good head on my shoulders as well. As much as my human nature wants to throw the car in park and run to the rescue, I’m going into countries I don’t know the first thing about, I am going to be vulnerable to diseases I’ve never heard of, and I am going to come up against physically dangerous scenarios, and I will have to think before doing.
So don’t lose a minute in
building on what you’ve been given, complementing your basic faith with
good character, spiritual understanding, alert discipline, passionate
patience, reverent wonder, warm friendliness, and generous love, each
dimension fitting into and developing the others. With these qualities
active and growing in your lives, no grass will grow under your feet,
no day will pass without its reward as you mature in your experience of
our Master Jesus.
                                                  2 Peter 1:5-9
