A day in the life of Robby Riggs!
Sitting here with the cold weather outside (finally), peppermint hot chocolate, family, friends that I have been hanging out with that I haven’t for years, Christmas tomorrow….life is grand!
Here is the story.
I have a great friend, Austin. Him and I have grown up together since we were in preschool and have stayed faithful friends through a life that has been rare. It seems to me that when Austin and I get together, there comes a new adventure…this one happens to be wrecked!
We wanted to make a second annual trip to the mall together to shop for our mothers for Christmas… fun times.
So, we begin.
We enter the highway, a.k.a 410, in San Antonio…if you don’t know this, it is a major highway. Entering on it with some ease :>) we are just talking about life and what is currently taking place in both of our lives and how God really is doing some interesting things. All of a sudden, we come upon a pretty nasty wreck (it is fresh, smoke, cars still driving through it, no police…nothing. It just happened.
An 18-wheeler, 1 white Lincoln that is totally smashed and pinned up against the wall, and 1 car that the front is literally torn off and sitting in the middle of a median. Of course, we just can’t pass this up. We aren’t looking to be heroes, just average guys wanting to help. No one is helping…we have too. Luckily, I went through 2 years of nursing school and had some knowledge on what to do with victims.
Only being able to focus on 1 of the vehicles, we focused on the car that the front had been totally smashed. Austin and I jump out quick, run to the car, and there is an old man just sitting there.
Okay- here I am, trying to process everything going on: Trying to make sure I don’t get hit by cars, thinking that if a spark goes off it could be bad news bears, knowing we have to get this guy out of the vehicle, he is obviously not very aware of what has just happened, knowing I am protected by the good Samaritan Law…and then, another man comes into the scene. He is freaking out and trying to get this man out, wanting ME to get him out, I know that we have to brace his neck, there are no apparent injures (which is such a GOD MIRACLE), but always, you make sure that the neck and back are aligned. CRUCIAL.
This man ask me to get him out and I turn to think, and when I do, this man has grabbed him out of the vehicle and now walking him away from the car… Austin and I are now in panic mode, because…well… YOU DONT DO THAT! But, here we go!
We lay him down, Austin gets a blanket for the man, I grab the neck, then an Army Medic randomly appears and starts to take control, and I help with holding the spine and neck in place.
This is where I learn my lesson- how the Lord used this to teach me something.
While I am holding him, the police and ambulance arrive and they tell me to keep holding Him because the other vehicle had critical patients and had to get them first. I understood. So, they throw a sweater over my head to keep the sun out of this 62 year old man…here we are…William and I just face to face under this sweater.
I was in a bubble, I had NO CLUE what was happening around me. I could hear, but still couldn’t process, I could listen but didn’t care what was happening, because all of my focus was on William and trying to keep him alert. As I am sitting there for 15 minutes or so… I really learned something.
That my life is like this to many times. I have this shield around me that everyone is trying to tell me something, that I need to be really listening and understanding and well I don’t, because I am just a stubborn man. There could be something important and all I think about is myself and that myself, is all that matters at times and how selfish I really am. The Lord used this one event to show me some things that were currently taking place in my life, that I hadn’t really noticed and He had to use this event to take this stupid shield off me.
After all of this, I was so thankful of what the Lord had just taught me. Now, I had to apply this and learn from it. Learn, do, and don’t forget moments like that when you know that God just taught you something big.
Always an adventure.
Have a Merry Christmas!!!!
Today, I hope that you can tell your family and friends, how much you love them and how thankful you are for them. We really never know our moment when God will call us home or teach us something huge.
Striving to be more like Him,
Robby
