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Would You Just Get Out of My Way!

by Jerry Ousley  
7/18/2009 / Christian Living

What a morning it had been. Everything I did seemed like I either had to do it twice, or I had to take the long way "around the fence" to get it done. Have you ever had one of those days? After completing my self-appointed chores before going to work, I hopped in the car and took off. I have to admit, I was driving a little too fast trying to make up for lost time and I was running late. The town I worked in was about twenty miles away, which isn't a terribly long commute and I was winning the race for time until I arrived at a junction where I had to turn. There's a truck stop there and, wouldn't you know it, one had to pull out right in front of me. Of course, I had plenty of time to stop but remember, I was running late and so I began to scream at the driver (like he could hear me in that big rig). I didn't curse or swear, but my attitude was just as bad.

The Holy Spirit began to speak to my heart and urged me to look at my watch and calculate how much time the truck driver had cost me. It was, well, every bit of 10 seconds. "But, Lord, I'm in a hurry. Why did you have to let this happen of all days?" The answer came to my heart, "You need to slow down, son." What could I say? When He's right, He's right. Well, I had some repenting to do to say the least.

How many days do we live life like this? For some of us it's quite a few. I believe that this is one of the reasons we suffer things like ulcers and "Acid Reflux" (no, I'm not that smart. I heard it on a commercial once). We get ourselves going at top speed some days with worry, frustration, and just plain old anger. It is devastating to our systems not only physically but also spiritually.

When I looked back on the situation, I realized that I was taking all my frustration out on that innocent, unknowing (and unconcerned) truck driver. But I should have taken a moment, prayed to God, and allowed Him to calm me.

No matter how hard we live life and how much we try to cram into a day we've still only got twenty-four hours. During that time we've got to eat, sleep, and do those things our bodies demand that we do. Yet we live like we don't have time to waste on those necessary things because we fill our days up with, well, too much.

The other day as I was opening up a package, I pulled out a piece of the packing, held it up to my wife and said, "You know, Hun, someone probably got yelled at while trying to produce this and was told to hurry so they could fill a rush order, so they could ship it to a company that needed to put it in this box, and rush it out to the mail, so I could get this package, open it up and throw this piece of packing away." When you think about it like that it doesn't make a lot of sense does it?

I believe what God is trying to tell me is to slow down. Live a little more by noticing the things that really count like being kind to people, trying to understand them a little bit better and get off my race horse. I used to say that it would be nice if God had made thirty-six hour days, and eight day weeks. But you know what? If He had, I'd just fill that up too. What a merciful God we have to limit is to 24/7! We'd kill ourselves!

So, slow down a little. You'll probably accomplish just as much with a whole lot less stress. By the way, that particular morning I arrived at work a couple of minutes later than normal but I was still on time. So what was the big deal?

Jerry D. Ousley is the author of ?Soul Challenge?, ?Soul Journey?, ?Ordeal?, ?The Spirit Bread Daily Devotional and his first novel ?The Shoe Tree.? Visit our website at spiritbread.com to download these and more completely free of charge.

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