Blindsided

The title of the internet news story stood out immediately: “Leaping Antelope Knocks Couple Off Speeding Motorcycle.” Here is the story: “An antelope running across a road knocked a couple off a motorcycle as they drove through Grand Teton National Park. Park officials say 38-year-old Brady Burgess, of Garland, Utah, was driving the bike and had just passed a motorhome at 65 miles an hour when the antelope leaped and struck the motorcycle sideways Saturday. The animal knocked the couple off the bike, which fell over and slid 100 feet down U.S. 26/89/191. Forty-six-year-old Koreen Burgess was transferred Sunday from St. John’s Medical Center in Jackson to University of Utah Health Sciences Center in Salt Lake City. Her condition wasn’t immediately available. Burgess was in good condition at St. John’s. The accident closed the highway for an hour” (FoxNews.com, 6-22-09).

I must admit…my first thought after seeing the title was: “Only in Wyoming…” After all, what are the odds of this kind of a encounter happening in a state that perhaps has more uninhabited space per capita that any other? One tiny antelope and one relatively small motorcycle in a state that includes 97,818 square miles of mostly open space. Who could have expected it? The couple on the motorcycle may have never even saw what hit them until it was over.

But the more I reflected on it, the more I realized that life is a lot like this motorcycle accident. One minute, we are cruising along smoothly, enjoying the scenery, and then – BAM - we get blindsided. A serious illness or disease, a financial setback, a fractured relationship, the death of a family member or friend, or any number of other struggles knocks us off our feet and we find ourselves in the ditch, bruised and battered.

What then? We put ourselves under the care of God Who, through Christ, can heal our wounds, strengthen our resolve, and get us back on the road. The leaping antelopes of life continue to be no match for the Great Physician!

God loves you!
Mike

Protecting Your Investments

“An Israeli woman mistakenly threw out a mattress with $1 million inside, setting off a frantic search through tons of garbage at a number of landfill sites, Israeli media reported Wednesday. The woman told Army Radio that she bought her elderly mother a new mattress as a surprise on Monday and threw out the old one, only to discover that her mother had hidden her life savings inside…When she went to look for the mattress, it had already been taken by garbage men, she said. Subsequent searches at three different landfill sites turned up nothing. The Israeli daily Yediot Ahronot published a picture of the woman searching through garbage at a dump in southern Israel. Yitzhak Borba, the dump manager, told the radio station that his staff was helping the woman, saying she appeared “totally desperate.” He said the mattress was hard to find among the 2500 tons of garbage arriving at the site every day. He said he increased security at the site to keep would-be treasure hunters at bay” (“Woman Mistakenly Junks Mattress With $1 Million Inside,” Fox News, 6-10-09).

Where do you store your treasures? Are you keeping them in a safe place? Consider the counsel of Jesus regarding your valuables: “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves do not break in or steal; for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also” (Matthew 6:19-21).

Most people would view storing a million dollars in a mattress as a very poor choice. But when it comes to protecting what is truly important in life, Fort Knox is no more secure than a lumpy old mattress. Only God can protect your investments for eternity. Let me encourage you to entrust your treasures to the One Who “…is able to guard what (you) have entrusted to Him until that day” (1 Timothy 1:12).

God loves you!
Mike