This morning My dad and I went to Walmart (how many of my blogs are going to start this way?) and as we were getting ready to leave, we noticed huge lines at both Walmart and Meijer gas stations. It seemed a little odd, but I blew it off as some sort of coincidence. I did need to fill my gas can for the mower, so we got in line, pumped two gallons of gas and took off. The price – $3.93.
A few hours later, we went into town and noticed that all the gas stations were advertising gas at $4.14 or higher. I remembered back to earlier and wondered if the people in line before had heard some report on the news that the prices were going to spike or something. Well, my car was at a quarter tank. You know the feeling. You start freaking out thinking, “dangit (my expletive of choice), If I just would have known it was going to go up $.20 in four hours, I would have filled up before.” So I told my dad, “I think it’s a long shot, but let’s just go to Walmart and see what the price is.”
We headed over and to my dismay, every gas station we passed had the new jacked up prices. But, I was not to be beaten without a fight. I kept going. We came East on 223 and saw the Meijer station sign first. $4.25!!! “Grrrrrr” I kept going. To my surprise, when we got a little closer, I saw the Walmart price. $3.93. (Insert angel chorus music) No way. So, I pulled in, got in line and filled up. (Nice little story, huh?)
The lines for the pump reminded me of almost thirty years ago. I remember a day when we sat in a line at a gas station hoping there would be gas when we got there. I just started wondering, “What does God think when He sees this?” All of us humans, always trying to figure out what’s up, running, scurrying, looking around at what everyone else is doing, then jumping in line to get what we can before it’s all gone. When you look at life from 30,000 miles up, you wonder if we aren’t all running around in circles, freaking out about all kinds of stuff, and never really getting anywhere – except maybe closer to the bank of some river where we will all plunge together without ever seeing it coming.
Well, it’s weird for a Christ follower, because we know that we aren’t about to perish with the masses, yet in so many ways, we look around and find ourselves running with the world in the same way and the same speed and in the same direction – often not even wondering why. What will be our fate? Where are we headed? What are we running (living) for anyway? Do the people of this world look over and see another lemming with the same freaked out look, running with the crowd in the same direction with apparently no direction? Or do they see someone who knows who they are, where they are headed and with a composed and peaceful spirit – ready for the worst that life can throw at them? Do gas prices rock my world? Is my security based in my job, accomplishments or earthly relationships. Or is there a deeper anchor in my life. Is something greater than all this the real source of my strength?
So, how you doing with gas prices, uncertainty in your workplace, global warming, crazy natural disasters, wars and rumors of wars…?
