But if we confess our sins to Him, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins [including impatience] and to cleanse us from all wickedness.” 1 John 1:9
Traffic jams…good grief. Ok, before we go any further in this story, let me just confess that I know my impatience in traffic is probably a sin. I don’t think you will find it listed specifically in the Bible but that is only because no one had any cars. But wait…maybe there were donkey jams…who knows. Anyway, my wife Judy and I were on our way recently to the Billy Graham Training Center just outside of Asheville, North Carolina. We were cruising along, filled with anticipation, excited about the speaker, Jim Cymbala, and a great worship guy, Michael O’Brian. Yup it was gonna be good…if we could only get there.
Our faithful travel buddy, Waze, had warned me that there was a slight traffic jam coming up—you know, five minutes in traffic. Waze is a great friend but this time, well, he or she failed…miserably. It went like this. To help us not sit in traffic, Waze had us detour. It has done this before with stellar results, so I had no qualms about trusting it this time. We soon found ourselves on a two-lane road cruising along and right before we were to rejoin the interstate there was a little, tiny construction zone—not on the interstate but on the Waze detour. No deal, right? Wrong. This little, tiny construction zone required one lane to be closed which normally would not be a deal except for the twenty thousand people who also had Waze and had taken the detour. The traffic people had a traffic light to manage the mess but as it turns out the light for our way heading east literally stayed green for about forty seconds. I’m not kidding. So, we sat there for almost thirty minutes waiting for our turn. Ok, I was not a happy camper. Try as I might there wasn’t an ounce of gratitude in my dusty dry soul.
Finally, it was my turn, and I sighed a great sigh of relief and then I saw it. The thing that caused the whole mess, the mess on the interstate and all the cars on the detour waiting on the stinking light, was a forty-yard pothole repair. That’s it. Nothing major, nothing earth shattering just a little itty-bitty road repair. Ok, I was “fit to be tied”, and for the next fifteen miles I uttered under my breath about TDOT and whoever else had anything to do with that light and that repair.
Well, somewhere down the road the Holy Spirit was finally able to chip His way though my slightly hardened heart and I went from uttering complains to uttering a prayer that went something like, “God, it’s me. I’m sorry.” Suddenly, I realized just how foolish all this ranting and raving stuff was and boy did I feel foolish. It was one of those times when I was very grateful for a Dearest Daddy that is more than willing to forget my disasters and my stupid’s. I’m so glad that He is more than willing to put out the fires of my soul with a big bucket full of His grace. He is always willing to forgive. In times like this I do wish I could better remember those three powerful yet simple words…He’s got this. Big or little…He does. Bro. Dewayne
Grits with Grace 