Construction Areas
I usually have several thoughts buzzing in my head that I share with you in this space. I see, hear, or observe something that gets me thinking; thus “just thinking.” As you know, I believe God speaks to us daily through the ordinary occurrence of life and so I’m always on the look-out for some message from the Lord.
Driving to my office and thinking of writing this article, I realized I didn’t have anything buzzing in my head or anything to write about. And so I prayed, “Lord, do you have anything for me today?” Just then I came to a stop and there on the bumper ahead of me was something which got me thinking. It was one of those bumper stickers. It read: “The road in life is often under construction.”
CONSIDER that from birth to death life is, indeed, a series of construction areas. We’re sailing along, everything is great and then we have to slam on the brakes because we’ve come upon a construction area. We lose a job, a loved one dies or becomes ill, there’s trouble at home, or we don’t like what we see in the mirror any longer. We slow down, sometimes to a stop, all we can see are those endless orange barrels or problems. Our lives are drastically altered and our plans and schedules go out the window. Life then becomes focused on one and only one objective, getting past the construction area and getting on with life.
But until then, we have a choice. We can go through such times groaning or growing. We can allow those times to control us and dictate our response or we can control those times and benefit from them. We can see those times as opportunities to see and experience God and life as we cannot while traveling 70 mph when our only concern is our hair getting messed up from the open car window.
We can either make these times constructive or destructive. We have no choice about construction areas; as the bumper sticker says, that’s life, but we do have a choice as to how we travel them.
A few minutes later, after seeing that bumper sticker, I said, “Oh great, they’re doing construction work up ahead. I’ll be late and…” I chuckled. “I’ll just use the delay to work through a problem with God and hopefully grow a little in the process.” Do the same!
P.S. “The sorrows of life [construction areas] come often as disguised gifts from God.” (George Matheson)
Rev. Wendell Mettey
4/18/1991
Revised 9/26/2013
